Deserted sidewalks, streets usually saturated with traffic that are now empty, schools closed, gatherings canceled, and, in all minds, worry and distrust. The Covid-19 epidemic, seen as the result of a “Enemy plot” according to the country’s highest authorities last week, targeted Iranians in their daily lives. Its reality imposed itself on the regime, which had tried to minimize its magnitude after being accused of hiding the emergence of it. Surrounded by the crises, the leaders of the Islamic Republic are accused of having wanted to save appearances for the anniversary of the 1979 revolution, on February 11, and especially to try to encourage the participation in the legislative elections of February 21. The tone has changed since, one after the other, already fifteen dignitaries and people linked to power have contracted SARS-CoV-2.
Five died, including Mohammed Mirmohammad, a member of the Discernment Council – an assembly charged with advising the Guide to the Revolution – who died on Monday March 2. The Vice-President of the Islamic Republic, Masoumeh Ebtekar, was also infected.
However, if the epidemic is there, its true magnitude remains unknown, hidden behind official figures which many caregivers doubt and which MPs openly contest, accusing the authorities of lying. The Iranian health ministry announced on Monday 523 cases and 12 new deaths bringing the total number of deaths since the start of the epidemic to 66. “Their balance sheets are wrong. I have no doubt about that. We have patients who contracted Covid-19 in our hospital, which are not included in the official figures ”, told World a doctor from the north of the country.
In Gilan, a northern province bordering the Caspian, the situation is said to be particularly critical. Monday, Gholam-Ali Jafarzadeh Imenabadi, deputy of Rasht, the capital of this region, thus qualified the official figures of ‘Joke’, indicating that the situation was more serious there than elsewhere with hospitals “Full of suspicious patients”. Overwhelmed hospitals and clinics would no longer be able to provide ordinary care. “In our hospital, all surgical operations considered non-urgent have been canceled”, indicated to World a doctor from the southern region of Iran. The entire territory would now be affected.
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