Iran launches 2nd phase for combating COVID-19 pandemic

Islam Mohamed

Iran has launched a second phase for tackling the coronavirus pandemic after thousands of citizens died and hundreds of thousands were infected. However, the Iranian authorities will not toughen measures against the COVID-19 pandemic. The Iranian government announced it would ease the preventive measures.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) kicked off on April 11 the second phase for combating the coronavirus pandemic.  The IRGC took over the COVID-19 file in March from the Ministry of Health.

The second phase included resumption of business activities bringing back transportation crowds again despite the Health Ministry’s repeated announcements that public crowds are a major cause for infection.

There is growing public resentment after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said last Tuesday at a meeting of the National Security Council. Rouhani said he would not impose a total lockdown even if 2 million citizens died of the disease, citing that he prefers to support the economy.

Iran’s economy has been going through turmoil since US President Donald Trump imposed economic sanctions on Tehran in August 2018.

The US sanctions are aimed at forcing the Iranian regime to stop its expansion and nuclear plans.

While the Iranian government’s statistics, which are issued by the Health Ministry, say 70,000 people were infected by the coronavirus, a member of Iran’s National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce, Hamid Souri, has the number of cases reached 500,000, confirming unofficial statistics which say that the real numbers exceed by far what the government claims.

The government’s move to ease restrictions coincided with the Health Ministry’s announcement that more than 4,300 citizens had died of the COVID-19.

Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on April 10 against early lifting of lockdown, noting that lifting restrictions too quickly could lead to a deadly resurgence.