Iran’s coronavirus death toll has risen to 15 today with Iranians running short of masks and testing kits, the regime refusing to seal off the holy city at the centre of the crisis and pilgrims spreading the virus around the Middle East.
Even according to official figures, Iran has the worst virus outbreak in the Middle East with 95 people now infected – an increase of 34 since yesterday – and 15 dead.
However, there is strong suspicion that the true figures are much higher, with one lawmaker declaring yesterday that 50 people had died in the holy city of Qom.
Qom, where the virus is believed to have arrived in Iran from China, is a major destination for Shi’ite pilgrims from around the Middle East.
But despite the growing crisis, the governor of Qom declared last night that locking down the city was ‘not an appropriate solution’, Iranian media said.
Three women and a police officer wear masks in Tehran on Sunday to guard against the coronavirus in Iran, which now has the worst outbreak in the Middle East
Women wearing protective masks get off a bus in Tehran yesterday, amid claims that the Iranian regime is covering up the true scale of the crisis
Iranians had been facing shortages of medical supplies even before the new coronavirus broke out in Qom.
The medical shortages kicked in after Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran in 2018.
Since then, panic has broken out over a lack of face masks, with health experts still unsure exactly how the virus spreads.
Health workers also face a lack of testing kits, meaning that coronavirus cases could go unnoticed for days – allowing the outbreak to spread further.
There are also claims that pharmacies are facing shortages of hand-sanitising gels which could help to contain the outbreak in Qom and around the country.
Washington had exempted humanitarian goods including medicines and medical equipment from its punitive measures.
But purchases of such supplies are hindered by banks being wary of conducting any business with Iran, for fear of falling foul of sanctions themselves.
Qom lawmaker Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani told a session of parliament in Tehran yesterday that 50 people had died in the holy city.
‘I think the performance of the administration in controlling the virus has not been successful,’ he said, in the most public rebuke of the Iranian regime to date.
Farahani said the 50 deaths in Qom date back to February 13, whereas Iran first officially reported cases of the virus on February 19.
He also claimed that 250 people had been quarantined in the city, which is around 75 miles south of Tehran.
‘None of the nurses have access to proper protective gears,’ Farahani said, adding that some health care specialists had left the city.
‘So far, I have not seen any particular action to confront corona by the administration.’
Iranians wait to get prescription drugs at a state-run pharmacy in Tehran last week, amid shortages of medical supplies which were ongoing even before the coronavirus outbreak
People walk in front of the Shrine of Fatima Masumeh in Qom, the Shi’ite holy city at the centre of Iran’s coronavirus outbreak
Health ministry spokesman Iraj Harirchi rejected the Qom lawmaker’s claims, insisting the death toll from the virus remains at 12.
Several of Iran’s neighbours have shut their borders after countries including Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE pointed the finger at Iran for their own virus outbreaks.
Kuwait has reported five cases of coronavirus, all of them patients who had recently flown from the Iranian city of Mashhad.
The Iranian regime has yet to admit any virus cases in Mashhad, raising further doubts about its claims.
An Iranian student who is feared to be the first coronavirus patient in Iraq wears a mask and holds medical equipment at a hospital in Najaf in Iraq yesterday
A woman wearing a mask visits a pharmacy in Tehran yesterday, with medical supplies already running short since the U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran in 2018
Kuwait has already sealed off its transport links with Iran and was preparing to evacuate its citizens from the country.
Around a third of Kuwait’s 1.4 million citizens are Shiites, who travel regularly to Iran to visit religious shrines, while Kuwait also hosts roughly 50,000 Iranian workers.
Bahrain yesterday announced its first case of the virus, saying a school bus driver had been infected after travelling from Iran via Dubai.
A second patient was later confirmed to have made the same journey.
More than half of Bahrain’s population of under one million are Shiites, who also travel frequently to Iran.
In Dubai, where long-haul carriers Etihad and Emirates have been among the few airlines still flying to China, most flights to Iran have now been suspended.
Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, said today that all flights to Iran except for Tehran had been stopped ‘until further notice’.
The airport added that ‘all passengers arriving on direct flights from Tehran will receive thermal screening at the airport.’
The latest cases in the UAE were a 70-year-old Iranian man, whose condition is unstable, and his 64-year-old wife.
On Monday, Abu Dhabi authorities called on all UAE citizens ‘to not travel to Iran and Thailand at present and up until further notice’ as part of its efforts to monitor and contain the disease.