All Flights to Iran Cancelled & Neighbors Closed Borders IRI Regime has No Quarantine Plans
IRI Still Allows Pilgrimage to All Shrines
IRI Does Not Take Coronavirus SeriouslyWorld Quarantined Iran
Iranian Neighbors Closed their Borders with Iran.
Flights Cancelled to Iran.IRI Official: 7,200 Infected & 245 Dead
IRI Unofficial: 10,000 Infected & 1200 Dead
Over 20 IRI Officials are Dead
Many Mullahs & IRI Officials are Infected
Mohammad Mirmohammadi
Adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died
Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar
Has tested positive for the coronavirus.
Mohammad Mirmohammadi, who died on Monday. Islamic Parliament of Iran
A member of the inner circle of Iran's Supreme Leader died of the coronavirus*
Coronavirus Update StatisticsCoronavirus Death & Infected Update Statisticshttps://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/*
Iran hit hardest as oil price war, coronavirus cripples nationFOX News
https://www.foxnews.com/he one-two punch of coronavirus and an escalating oil price war that is roiling world markets is hurting one country more than any other: Iran.
Already dealing with a deadly outbreak, the Islamic Republic, heavily dependent on oil revenues, is in no position to deal with the lowest per-barrel prices seen in decades.
"$20 oil in 2020 is coming," tweeted Ali Khedery, a former U.S. official in Iran and onetime Middle East expert with Exxon. "Huge geopolitical implications. Timely stimulus for net consumers. Catastrophic for failed/failing petro-kleptocracies Iraq, Iran, etc. - may prove existential 1-2 punch when paired with COVID19."
Iran's oil exports, its main economic lifeline, have been under siege for quite some time. Experts say the escalation of the global price war between Saudi Arabia, the world's top exporter, and Russia could cripple many nations outside Saudi Arabia, with Iran topping the list.
Oil prices have plunged 30 percent, the largest one-time drop since the 1991 Gulf War. Now, with oil trading around $30 a barrel, many experts say the price isn't one Iran can survive on.
Saudi Arabia and Russia formed the so-called OPEC+ alliance in 2016 after oil prices plunged. Since then, the two countries have orchestrated supply cuts of 2.1 million barrels per day. The Saudis wanted even steeper cuts, but Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to play along, worrying that it would give American oil producers too much ground.
On Friday, Putin's energy minister, Alexander Novak, said beginning next month, countries could produce as much oil as they wanted. The Saudis, angered by Russia's refusal, said Sunday it would open its spigots and drive down prices.
"If a true price war ensues, there will be plenty of pain in the oil markets," Badr Jafar, president of Crescent Petroleum, a United Arab Emirates oil company, told The New York Times. "Many will be bracing for the economic and geopolitical shocks of a low-price environment."
In no place is that more clear than Iran, which has already been feeling the sting from American sanctions. Export earnings in Tehran have also been drastically slashed and experts warn that a further decline could stretch what little ability the country has left to pay for vital services and security.
"The fall in oil prices could actually have more of an effect on the country than Western sanctions had had over the past several years," says Justin Dargin, a Middle East energy expert from Oxford University.
Aside from the price plunge, Iran is also dealing with the coronavirus, which has morphed from a health crisis into an economic one.
On Sunday, Iran's health ministry reported 49 new deaths from the COVID-19 virus - the highest toll within 24 hours since the start of the outbreak in the country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in every 12,000 Iranians have the virus. The country has the third-most cases behind China and South Korea, though experts fear the country is underreporting the extent of the outbreak in an attempt to hide a desperate situation for which its own leaders are partially responsible.
Tehran initially downplayed the outbreak because they were worried about low turnout in Feb. 11 parliamentary elections. The low turnout fear was bolstered by the Iranian military's accidental shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger jet in January.
In the end, authorities prioritized their political concerns over the risk of spreading the virus to its citizens. And the move backfired. Big time.
Now the news that a number of lawmakers have tested positive for the quickly-spreading virus - two have already died from it - has ripped away what little was left of the Iranian government's credibility. Officials like Gen. Hossein Salami, the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps., recently went so far as to accuse the United States of unleashing the virus in Iran on purpose.
"Today, the country is engaged in a biological battle," Salami said. "We will prevail in the fight against this virus, which might be the product of an American biological (attack), which first spread in China and then to the rest of the world."
Washington Post Global Opinions writer Jason Rezaian believes many of Iran's current problems could have been avoided but adds that by downplaying the crisis, "Iranian officials have actually managed to aggravate the public panic they wanted to avoid - and have undermined their own legitimacy in the process.
"People are terrified, and they have no trust in the state's ability to manage the crisis. It's hard to blame them," he said.
Bloomberg Opinions columnist Bobby Ghosh believes that Iran has "long regarded reckless endangerment - of its own citizens as much as of neighboring nations - as a governing precept."
"Its reflective tendency to lie about crises, recently on display with the shooting down of a Ukrainian airliner, adds credence to reports that the first signs of the outbreak were evident on Feb. 13, six days before the government owned up," he said.
Iran's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi downplayed reports of a government cover-up for days and even went on national television to joke about his own symptoms.
In addition to that horrific display, Iranian judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi said Monday that authorities would be releasing 70,000 prisoners because of the coronavirus outbreak. Raisi did not give details on when or if prisoners, once deemed dangerous enough to lock up behind bars, would be required to return.
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Coronavirus: Iran reports leap in death tollBBC
https://www.bbc.com/
Tehran province is the worst affected by the new coronavirus diseaseIran has reported 43 new deaths related to the coronavirus disease in the past 24 hours, as it struggles to combat one of the world's worst outbreaks.
At least 237 people have died and 7,161 have been infected across the country since mid-February, although the real figures are believed to be far higher.
The authorities have tried to limit the spread of Covid-19 by closing schools and urging people not to travel.
But no hotspots have been put under lockdown, like in China and Italy.
Cases linked to Iran have also been reported by Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
What's the latest from Iran?
On Monday, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpour announced for a second day in a row that more than 40 people with Covid-19 had died.
Visit Map:https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpspr ... -3x-nc.pngTehran province is the worst affected with 1,945 cases of the disease, followed by Qom with 712, Mazandaran with 633, Isfahan with 601, and Gilan with 524.
Mr. Jahanpour said the rate of new infections was dropping, but that it was "still too early to judge" when the outbreak would be brought under control.
Almost 2,400 people had so far recovered from the disease, he added.
Meanwhile, local media said the reformist politician Mohammad Reza and the high-ranking Shia Muslim cleric Ayatollah Reza Mohammadi Langeroudi were among the latest fatalities.
In a separate development, 16 Iranians died from methanol poisoning in Khuzestan province after false rumors spread that drinking alcohol would help prevent people getting the Covid-19 virus, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has cancelled a speech he was expected to deliver to a large crowd in the holy city of Mashhad later this month for Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
There is widespread fear and concern about the outbreak in IranSome people believe the Iranian authorities are understating the true extent of the outbreak, and members of parliament have publicly challenged their figures.
On Saturday, about 16,000 people suspected of having Covid-19 were being treated at hospitals in major cities, according to Mr. Jahanpour.
A representative of Health Minister Saeed Namaki was also quoted by local news agencies as saying that "around 200 people have died" from Covid-19 in Gilan alone. But the official later retracted his statement, saying the figure included those who had died from other diseases.
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Virus hits highest levels of Iran's governmentBBC
https://www.bbc.com/Iranian officials have downplayed the severity of the outbreak, but about 30 or so have tested positive for the Covid-19 virus in less than three weeks.
They include Masoumeh Ebtekar, one of Iran's 11 vice-presidents, who reportedly attended a meeting with President Hassan Rouhani and a number of cabinet ministers shortly before it was confirmed that she was carrying the virus.
Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who led the government's Covid-19 task force, meanwhile tested positive a day after being filmed mopping sweat from his brow during a news conference.
The head of emergency medical services, Pirhossein Kolivand, and Esmail Najjar, who is responsible for the Interior Ministry's crisis management, have also been infected.
At least 24 members of Iran's parliament - about 10% - have tested positive for the virus and two have died as a result of it: Fatemeh Rahbar, a conservative who had recently been elected to represent Tehran, and Mohammad Ali Ramezani, who had been elected in Gilan.
Some Iranians have speculated that the reason that so many officials have the Covid-19 virus is because it was already circulating before the parliamentary election on 21 February and that the government suppressed information because it did want to reduce turnout - a key indicator of legitimacy.
Others have wondered whether it is simply because Iranian officials have better access to testing kits.
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What's happening elsewhere in the region?BBC
https://www.bbc.com/Saudi Arabia announced that anyone failing to declare correct health-related information and travel details as they entered the country would be liable to a fine of up to $133,000 (£102,000).
Officials have said that some of the Saudi citizens with Covid-19 failed to disclose that they had travelled to Iran on their return to the kingdom.
Passengers and crew of the Nile cruise ship A Sara are reportedly being quarantinedThe Saudi authorities have also imposed a temporary lockdown on the predominantly Shia Muslim eastern region of Qatif, where most of the Covid-19 cases have been reported, and suspended flights from nine countries, including Italy, South Korea, the UAE and Egypt.
Egypt reported its first death linked to the disease on Sunday - a 60-year-old German tourist who tested positive after being admitted to a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada on Friday.
The tourist had previously visited in the southern city of Luxor, where 45 people suspected of having the Covid-19 virus were evacuated from a Nile cruise ship on Saturday and placed in isolation on land.
On Monday, a member of a French tour group, Philippe Gruwe, told AFP news agency that about 80 passengers and crew were being quarantined on board.
The tests were carried out after the World Health Organization informed Egypt that a Taiwanese-American tourist who had been on the ship was infected.
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Iran official dead from coronavirus as global cases reach 100,000NY Post
https://nypost.com/
Iranian ambassador to Syria Hossein Sheikholeslam has died from the coronavirus.The novel coronavirus has infected nearly 100,000 people worldwide — spreading to around 90 countries and even slipping past the walls of the Vatican.
The tiny city-state within Rome confirmed its first case Friday, but wouldn’t say who was infected.
The Vatican has insisted that Pope Francis — who canceled audiences last week over a “slight indisposition” — has only a cold. He has tested negative for the coronavirus.
Vatican officials said they are working with Italian authorities to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Italy as a whole remained the European epicenter of the illness, particularly in its northern regions. A total of 148 fatalities have been reported there.
Meanwhile, in Iran, 3,500 cases and at least 107 deaths have been reported — including senior politician Hossein Sheikholeslam, a diplomat and the country’s former ambassador to Syria, Business Insider reported.
Eight percent of the country’s parliament has tested positive for the deadly infection, CNN reported earlier this week.
In the UK, a woman in her 70s with underlying health conditions became the first person in the country to die of COVID-19, the BBC reported.
The woman, who had been “in and out of hospital for non-coronavirus reasons,” was admitted and tested positive for the infection Wednesday.
The total number of people infected in the country surged to 116 Friday — rising by more than 30 in 24 hours — but the prime minister’s official spokesman said it was “highly likely the virus is going to spread in a significant way,” according to the report.
An Iranian firefighter disinfects a street in an effort to halt the wild spread of coronavirus in Tehran.The Netherlands and Cameroon each reported their first cases on Friday.
South Korea, the second-hardest-hit country, saw 505 additional cases reported Friday, a notable decline from a high of 851 Tuesday.
While the country has touted its “remarkable diagnostic and treatment abilities,” vice health minister Kim Gang-lip said, “It’s not easy to make predictions about how the situation … would play out.”
China, where the virus originated in December, reported 143 new cases Friday, the same as a day earlier — but a marked decline from earlier in the outbreak.
Only a month ago, China reported several thousand new cases a day, outnumbering infections in other countries about 120 to 1.
Iranian women wear face masks in Tehran.*
2nd Tehran lawmaker dies from coronavirus as Iran death toll hits 145Times of Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/Officials report 1,076 fresh cases in past 24 hours, says 16,000 people suspected of having virus hospitalized; Zarif accuses US of ‘medical terrorism’ through sanctions
Fatemeh Rahbar, 55, was a conservative MPTEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian lawmaker died from the novel coronavirus on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported, one of several officials to succumb to the illness in the epidemic-hit country.
Fatemeh Rahbar, 55, was a conservative MP and had recently been elected to the parliament from the capital Tehran, the agency said.
She is the second lawmaker killed by the virus in Iran and one of seven politicians and government officials who have died in the outbreak since the country reported its first cases in mid-February.
Rahbar was among the top candidates in Tehran for the conservatives, who overwhelmingly won February’s general election marked by the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic’s history.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohamamd Javad Zarif later said American sanctions — reimposed from 2018, after Washington pulled out of a multilateral nuclear deal — were undermining Iran’s battle against the coronavirus.
US President Donald Trump “is maliciously tightening US’ illegal sanctions with the aim of draining Iran’s resources needed in the fight against #COVID-19 — while our citizens are dying from it” Zarif tweeted on Saturday.
“The world can no longer be silent as US #EconomicTerrorism is supplanted by its #MedicalTerrorism,” he said.
Iran has been scrambling to contain the rapid spread of the virus and on Saturday reported 21 new deaths and 1,076 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tolls to 145 dead and 5,823 infected.
“More than 16,000 people are currently hospitalized as suspect cases,” health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference as he announced the tolls.
He added that 1,669 of confirmed cases have recovered from the illness.
Iran has closed schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events and reduced working hours across the country to slow the contagion, which has spread to all of its 31 provinces.
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A member of the inner circle of Iran's Supreme Leader died of the coronavirus, as the country records more deaths than anywhere outside ChinaBusiness Insider
https://www.businessinsider.com/A close adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died of the coronavirus, as the country continues to record a higher death toll than anywhere outside of China.
Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, died in hospital in Tehran on Monday, The Associated Press (AP) reported, citing Iranian state radio. Mirmohammadi had been a member of Khamenei's Expediency Council since 2017.
As of Monday morning, Iran had confirmed 978 infections and 54 deaths. China, which has reported more than 80,000 cases and 3,048 deaths, sent a delegation of experts to Iran to help fight the outbreak.
The situation in Iran is cause for concern, according to the AP, as more than half of the 1,150 cases confirmed across the Middle East can be traced back to the country.
Iranian women wear protective masks to prevent contracting coronavirus, as they walk in the street in Tehran.There are also fears that the death toll and recorded infections are far higher than the official numbers.
The actual number of infected could be closer to 23,000, according to researchers at the University of Toronto and Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
On Friday, the BBC, citing sources in the country's health system, said the real number of deaths was at least 210.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on said last Tuesday he was "deeply concerned" that Iran "may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak."
"All nations, including Iran, should tell the truth about the coronavirus and cooperate with international aid organizations," Pompeo said.
Iran has also been criticized for its efforts to combat the outbreak.
In this picture released by the office of Iranian supreme leader, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a meeting with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the country's diplomats in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2015.Major Shiite shrines in two of the country's worst hit areas, Mashhad and Qom, have been kept open, despite calls for their closure.
"We have no plan to quarantine any district or any city. We only quarantine individuals," Iran's president Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, according to BBC Monitoring. The situation worsened significantly since his comments.
The World Health Organization said last Monday that the situation in Iran is "deeply concerning."
A number of Iranian government officials have contracted this virus, though Mirmohammadi's death is the first amongst them.
On Tuesday, Iran's deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi revealed he had contacted the virus. The day before he was seen sweating and looking unwell at a press conference.
On Thursday, it was reported that one of Iran's vice presidents, Masoumeh Ebtekar, had contracted the virus. Ebtekar was in a meeting with Rouhani and the Iranian cabinet as recently as Wednesday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.As Business Insider's John Haltiwanger reported, Ebtekar is best known as the English-language spokesperson known to the media as "Mary" during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, when Iranian students stormed and occupied the US Embassy in Tehran.
On Friday, it was announced that Iran's first-ever ambassador to the Vatican, Hadi Khosroshahi, had died of coronavirus at the age of 81.
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