Iran has reopened mosques in some counties across the country deemed less affected by Covid-19 disease, but on Monday saw a sharp rebound in the number of deaths and new cases of coronavirus contamination.
Between Sunday noon and Monday at midday, an additional 74 deaths were recorded, bringing to 6,277 the number of deaths due to the virus, announced the spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Kianouche Jahanpour.
Almost 100,000 cases in the country
The new death toll represents a sharp rebound from the day before the Islamic Republic reported 47 dead, the lowest daily toll recorded in 55 days.
According to Health Minister Jahanpour, 1,223 new cases of infection have been recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 98,647.
Most of them closed since late February, the state has authorized mosques to reopen for worshipers in 132 counties considered to be at low risk of spreading the virus.
The county is a subdivision of the province: Iran has 434 counties spread over 31 provinces.
According to the Ministry of Health, the faithful must wear masks and gloves before entering the mosques and can only stay there for half an hour at prayer time using their personal prayer tools.
Mosques must also refrain from providing food and drink, must provide hand sanitizers and disinfect all surfaces, according to a statement quoted by the semi-official agency Isna.
According to Jahanpour, 79,397 of the patients hospitalized since the announcement of the first cases of new coronavirus in February, left the hospital while 2,676 patients are in critical condition.
He said Iran is among the “top five countries in the world“with the highest number of restores.
Figures and reality
Abroad, but also inside the country, some suspect the official figures to be largely underestimated.
President Hassan Rohani told him on Monday that Iran “had successfully prevented the spread of this virus in many“regions of the country.
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Iran’s response to the epidemic “has sometimes been found to be beyond international standards“Rohani said during a videoconference meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, broadcast on state television.
American sanctions
But the sanctions “human rights“of the United States against the Islamic Republic have hampered efforts to control the virus, he added, noting that they were preventing companies from selling their medical products to Iran.
In 2018, President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the international Iranian nuclear agreement (signed in 2015) before reimposing heavy economic sanctions against Tehran.
On paper, humanitarian goods (medicines and medical equipment in particular, editor’s note) escape sanctions, but in reality, international banks generally prefer to refuse a transaction involving Iran, whatever the product concerned, rather than run the risk to face reprisals from the United States.
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