Iran’s Coronavirus death toll continued to rise this week, with a reported 4,869 people now dead from the disease. Health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur, said Iran had a total of 77,995 COVID-19 cases.
Low-risk businesses, including shops, factories and workshops in Iran were given the green light to operate in an easing of the COVID-19 regulations. Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, asked Iranians to continue to observe measures to safeguard against the virus.
As tensions continued to mount between Washington and Tehran, the U.S. military accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps of harassing six of its naval ships in the Persian Gulf. A statement issued by the U.S. military said the ships had been approached by 11 IRGC vessels coming in dangerously close, a move which the statement said was provocative.
The International Monetary Fund said it was still assessing the Iranian government’s request for $5 billion in emergency financing, which officials said the country needed to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak. Jihad Azour, the director of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia Department told Reuters that the request was taking time, as there had been limited engagement with the Iranian government.
28 care homes in Iran have been affected by COVID-19, according to Mohammad Nafriyeh, the director of the State Welfare Organization’s Committee on Prevention of Communicable Diseases. Nafriyeh also said that the Kahrizak nursing home was the worst affected, with the highest number of deaths. Iran has 3,000 care homes for the elderly.
A warning over the government’s plans to release addicts from state-run shelters in Iran was given by Zahra Nejad-Bahram, a member of Tehran City Council. Speaking to Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency, she said that between 10,000 and 11,000 drug addicts had been released into the capital city Tehran, despite shelters observing strict health and hygiene guidelines aimed at preventing the spread of coronavirus.
Our thoughts are with everyone in Iran, and around the world, affected by the outbreak.
