Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, March 27, 2020—More than 12,400 people have died of coronavirus across 228 cities throughout all of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to reports obtained by the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) as of Friday afternoon local time, March 27. The death toll in various provinces includes: 1,400 in Isfahan, 1,030 in Khorasan Razavi, 980 in Mazandaran, 580 in Khuzestan, 370 in Kermanshah, 265 in Yazd, 250 in Lorestan, 140 in Sistan & Baluchistan, 50 in Kohgiluyeh & Boyer Ahmed, and 25 in Bushehr, among other provinces.
Medical sources in Gilan Province, northern Iran, indicate 40 individuals, including two nurses in the city of Astara, lost their lives. Authorities in many rural areas are deliberately not announcing the COVID-19 victims and even worse is that the corpses are buried as ordinary deceased individuals.
More than 12,400 people in 228 cities across Iran have died of coronavirus, according to reports obtained by the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK.#Iran#COVID19https://t.co/924q5FlQbx
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) March 27, 2020
The number of coronavirus victims in the city of Talesh alone has soared above 100. These sources indicate COVID-19 was discovered back in late January in the cities of Astara and Talesh. Back in in early January, a significant number of Chinese tourists had entered the cities of Astara and Anzali from the Republic of Azerbaijan, and from there headed to the city of Qom.
According to the state-run ILNA news agency, a nurse in the Velayat Hospital in the city of Qazvin in northwest Iran says, “The medical staff is tired… one of our colleagues tested positive for COVID-19. We are being infected one by one and no longer able to work… We may again have a very intense peak. This is very serious. Ever since I came here all the beds have been occupied.” Furthermore, a medical staff member in Tehran’s Baqiatollah Hospital said 20 to 30 people die of coronavirus each day in this hospital.
The Security and Anti-Terrorism Committee of the Iranian opposition coalition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has obtained documents from the regime’s Emergency Organization clearly indicating that regime President Hassan Rouhani lied in his claim of immediately informing the Iranian public on February 19 about the first cases of coronavirus in Qom. According to these documents, a significant number of coronavirus patients were hospitalized not only in Qom but also in Tehran on February 4.
Remarks by the regime’s own officials further indicate the government has been concealing the truth. “An illness has been spreading and its foreign name is coronavirus yet inside Iran it is called ‘severe respiratory illness.’ Then they say around 400 people died of severe respiratory illnesses and 50 of coronavirus… statistics show the number of cases is very high,” said Reza Shiran, a member of the regime’s Majlis (parliament).
All the while, on March 26 bus drivers in the city of Bojnurd, northeast Iran, protested lack of hygiene supplies and authorities’ refusal to shut down their services despite the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. A number of these drivers have been infected with the virus.
On this same day miners of a copper mine in northwest Iran also protested authorities’ refusal to shut down their activities. The workers are forced to show up for work despite the COVID-19 pandemic in this area and the death of one individual. Rallies were also held on March 24 a group of nurses in the city of Baneh, western Iran, and a number of nurses in Mashhad on March 23, protesting poor working conditions and lack of adequate supplies and equipment.
