Analysis by PMOI/MEK
Iran, April 9, 2020—More than 23,100 people have died of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in 251 cities across all of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to the Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) based on reports tallied up to Thursday afternoon local time, April 9. The official death count declared by the regime is 4,110, less than a fifth of the real figure.
The death toll in various provinces include: 3,050 in Tehran, 2,100 in Gilan, 1,900 in Khorasan Razavi, 1,810 in Isfahan, 1,000 in Khuzestan, 910 in Alborz, 670 in Kermanshah, 650 in Western Azerbaijan, 590 in Hamedan, 540 in Lorestan, 390 in Kurdistan, 370 in Semnan, 365 in Kerman, 355 in Eastern Azerbaijan, 135 in Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, and 100 in Charmahal & Bakhtiary. This is in addition to cases registered in other provinces.
Over 23,100 dead of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Iran
Medical sources in Karaj, a major city located west of Tehran, say the number of coronavirus victims in this city alone is over 800 and cases that are registered as deaths due to severe respiratory illnesses or heart failures are actually COVID-19 fatalities. More than 20 people are dying on a daily basis in Alborz Province and if we add those individuals who die without their cause of death registered, these numbers reach 30 each day, these sources add.
In Neyshabour, northeast Iran, the number of coronavirus victims is increasing each day. Hospitals cannot respond to the high number of patients and the city’s main cemetery is facing major problems. Up to April 6 around 180 COVID-19 victims had been buried in the city’s main cemetery. The regime’s oppressive security forces are preventing people from entering the cemetery, further indicating cover-up efforts. Coronavirus victims dying in villages are buried in their hometowns and not registered by authorities.
While Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani are ordering people back to work, Alireza Zali, head of Tehran’s COVID-19 Control Task Force said today, “Ever since day one of the coronavirus outbreak, other than two or three days, we have constantly been witnessing an increasing number of COVID-19 cases… In the past three days, we have witnessed an increasing number of various types of patients entering hospitals and an increase in those entering the ICU and CCU sections… Tehran is one of the most important coronavirus epicenters and cannot be compared to any other province.”
The scope of coronavirus deaths in Tehran has reached a certain level that Zali described the measures carried out by municipality authorities and the Behesht-e Zahra [cemetery] Organization in organizing the effort needed to bury the coronavirus victims as a “great epic.”
Iranian regime president Hassan Rouhani, amid high COVID-19 deaths in Iran, has ordered to reopen the economy and send many workers to their deaths.#Iran#COVID19 https://t.co/nadc9oTBtF
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) April 8, 2020
Three days ago, Rouhani described the situation in Sistan & Baluchistan Province in southeast Iran as “code white.” On April 9, the state-run Shahrvand daily wrote that the head of the Medical Apparatus Organization in Zahedan, southeast Iran, wrote a letter to the provincial governor highlighting the fact that the number of coronavirus patients has increased by 250 percent in the past 10 days. He expressed concern about "a second and strong wave of this illness across the province in the upcoming days."
"If the number of patients increase, our supply of personal protective equipment, medicine and hospital beds will not be adequate to provide patients’ needs,” the official said. This newspaper adds that 26 individuals in Sistan & Baluchistan have died of coronavirus and 135 with severe respiratory symptoms (being the pseudo name of COVID-19).
While the regime’s policies are causing more deaths every day, Khamenei, who made an official speech for the first time in two weeks, neither made any mention of the coronavirus victims nor offered condolences to the people of Iran. He also didn’t make mention of the many problems that the people are facing in their daily lives as the regime refuses to support them as their lives have come to a standstill. Khamenei, who oversees an economic empire worth over $200bn, has yet to make the smallest contribution to lifting some of the pressure from the millions of disaster-struck families across Iran.
Regarding the coronavirus crisis, Khamenei said, “In comparison to other problems, this is a small problem. We have plenty of problems across the world and in our country that were not smaller than this. Coronavirus should not make us oblivious to the conspiracies of the enemy, the conspiracies of the world arrogance [United States]… It is wrong to think that if we’re not hostile to others, they won’t be hostile to us. They reject the Islamic Republic in its entirety, they can’t understand it and bear it.”
The situation in Iran’s prisons continues to deteriorate, where many prisoners have contracted COVID-19 and several have died. The regime’s security forces have brutally quelled riots by prisoners who protested the regime’s lack of measures to protect them from coronavirus infection.
“Around 36 prisoners in Iran are feared to have been killed by security forces after the use of lethal force to control protests over COVID-19 safety fears,” Amnesty International declared. “An independent investigation into the torture and deaths in custody is urgently needed with a view to bringing to justice those found responsible.”
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), warned against the aggravating situation in Iran’s prisons. Mrs. Rajavi stressed that Iran’s prisons “house inmates several times their capacity and lack the minimum health facilities.”
Many prisoners in various prisons in the country, have contracted #Coronavirus and some have died. These prisons house inmates several times their capacity and lack the minimum health facilities #Iran #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/wDeRzq2KnF
— Maryam Rajavi (@Maryam_Rajavi) April 9, 2020
Regime officials continue to warn about the consequences of lifting work restrictions and reopening the country’s economy, as Rouhani and Khamenei have decided. Heydar Ali Abedi, member of the Iranian regime’s parliament (Majlis) cautioned, “The lifting of restrictions will cause many casualties, therefore returning things to normal, especially returning government employees to offices, is a wrong thing to do.”
Abdulkarim Hosseinzadeh, another MP, said, “The cancellation of the Majlis’ emergency plan to extend the lockdown was the Majlis’ tombstone.” Earlier this week, Khamenei ruled out a bill by the Majlis to continue quarantines to proceed with his plan to send people to work while the coronavirus outbreak has not yet been contained.
Iran coronavirus outbreak death toll interactive map
