Health and Hygiene

Radiofarda – Data gathered by Radio Farda from various national and local media in Iran quoting local authorities and Health Ministry officials indicate that the coronavirus (COVID-19) death toll in the country is at least 660 more than the officially announced tally on March 21. On Saturday in his daily announcement Dr. Kianoush Jahanpour, Spokesman of Iran’s Health Ministry, said …

Iran-HRM – Prisoners at risk of Coronavirus infection rebelled in two western Iranian prisons, some managing to escape. Friday night, March 20, 2020, prisoners in the Central Prison of Aligoudarz, in the western province of Lorestan, rebelled and disarmed some of prison guards, attempting to escape.  Clashes ensued between guards and prisoners at risk of Coronavirus infection, extending outside the …

Iran-HRM – Forty political prisoners in the Greater Tehran Penitentiary have started a hunger strike since Monday, March 16, 2020 to protest Judiciary officials’ rejection of granting leaves to political prisoners and prisoners of conscience after the spread of Coronavirus to prisons. Protesting inmates include those arrested in the protests in November 2019. The political prisoners announced their hunger strike in a …

VOA – Iran’s supreme leader refused U.S. assistance Sunday to fight the new coronavirus, citing an unfounded conspiracy theory that the virus could be man-made by America.  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s comments come as Iran faces crushing U.S. sanctions blocking the country from selling its crude oil and accessing international financial markets.  But while Iranian civilian officials in recent days have …

RFL/RE – Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has sent legislation to the former Soviet republic’s parliament that would impose a nationwide state of emergency in an attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Under Georgia’s constitution, lawmakers in Tbilisi have 24 hours to vote on whether to approve the declaration. Zurabishvili submitting the proposal to parliament just hours after Prime …

Radiofarda – In a rhetorical, discursive letter addressed to the people of the United States, the Islamic Republic President Hassan Rouhani has lamented that the victims of the sanctions Washington imposed on Tehran are not the country’s political camps, but the ordinary people. Commemorating the new Persian year (Nowruz, beginning March 20), the mid-ranking cleric has called on American people …

Radiofarda – Iran said Friday that coronavirus has killed 149 more people in the Islamic republic, raising the country’s official death toll from the disease to 1,433. Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raeesi said 1,237 more cases have been confirmed over the past 24 hours and 19,644 people are now known to have been infected in Iran, one of the world’s …

BBC – Iran is facing one of the largest coronavirus outbreaks in the world. Today, as families celebrate Persian New Year, Nowruz, there is concern the true scale of the virus is being downplayed by the government and could rapidly get much worse. Mohammad has been working relentlessly since the coronavirus outbreak to save the lives of his patients. The …

Radiofarda – Five former health ministers in Iran have urged the government to limit inter-city travel and close non-essential businesses in order to reduce the pace of coronavirus infections in the country. The former ministers, who are all medical doctors by profession, in a letter to President Hassan Rouhani have argued that one month after the start of the epidemic, …

RFL/RE – As Iran battles the coronavirus epidemic, people across the country have been working to ease the impact of the crisis. Volunteers are distributing food aid to poor families, sterilizing surfaces in public places, and sewing extra face masks for health workers.