Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani on Saturday (July 18) said that as many as 25 million Iranians could have been infected with the coronavirus since the outbreak’s beginning, as he urged the public to take the pandemic seriously, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.
He cited a new Iranian Health Ministry study in announcing the unprecedentedly high numbers.
Rouhani also said about 30 to 35 million out of Iran’s total population of 81 million people will be infected by the virus in the coming months.
Iranian officials have not explained on what the reports estimates are based. The study has so far not been made publicly available either.
Referring to the report, Rouhani said it also predicts that the number of hospitalisations will soon be “twice as many as we have seen in the last 150 days.”
In recent weeks, Iran has seen daily death tolls spike to their highest-ever levels, sparking increasing fear even as government officials say they cant lock the country back down for fear of cratering its sanctions-hit economy.
Iran has seen the worst outbreak in the Middle East, with more than 270,000 confirmed cases and at least 13,979 deaths. That includes 2,166 new cases and 188 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Health Ministry.
Authorities in the capital of Tehran are imposing new restrictions from Saturday, amid the severe increase in cases in recent weeks, closing some public spaces like coffee shops, zoos, and indoor swimming pools.
Rouhani’s most recent remarks show that questions remain over the country’s official figures from the outbreak, even after officials have publicly acknowledged its importance.
Before Iran reported its first cases of the virus in February, authorities denied it had reached the country for days, allowing the virus time to spread as the nation marked the 41st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution with mass demonstrations and also went on to hold a parliamentary election in which authorities desperately sought to boost turnout.
A parliamentary report in April said Iran’s death toll is likely nearly double the officially reported figures.
Given insufficient testing, the report said the number of people infected at the time was probably eight to 10 times higher than the reported figures. Even today, Iranian death tolls remain only based on those who died in coronavirus wards in hospitals.
However, it is believed that many more died at home, and some families have reportedly asked doctors not to mention their loved ones died of the virus to avoid the stigma associated with COVID-19.