MEK Iran: Regime Officials Deflect Blame as Coronavirus Deaths Surge Past 82,000

On Monday, the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK Iran) reported that more than 82,000 people in 347 cities in all 31 provinces in Iran have died from Covid-19. The regime has reported 17,405 of these deaths, or approximately one-fifth of the total number.

As cases and deaths surge, hospitals across Iran are overflowing and regime officials struggle to evade responsibility for the worsening crisis.

Overflowing Hospitals

Hospitals in cities across Iran are at or above capacity, and healthcare workers endeavor to keep up with the influx of patients. Masoud Mardani, a member of the National Covid-19 Task Force, expressed concern about the number of new cases in comments published by the Asr-e Iran daily on Sunday. “Currently the situation in Iran is far worse than February and March. All the hospitals are filled with Covid-19 patients and our medical staff is tired,” he said. “There was a coronavirus..escalation from the middle of May. The virus began transferring among people at rates three to nine times higher than before,” he added.

Javan daily interviewed the head of Yaft Abad hospital, who said that the hospital has been at capacity for over a month. “Every day, we have 15 patients in ICU who are waiting to be hospitalized,” he said.

Javan also quoted the deputy of the Coronavirus Task Force in Tehran, who said, “All public, semi-public, private and charity hospitals are currently engaged in the coronavirus response. Some private hospitals, such as Isar hospital, only admit coronavirus patients. In Tehran, half of all ICU beds for adults have been allocated to coronavirus patients. Two-thirds of coronavirus patients are hospitalized in the regular section and one-third are in ICU.”

Some hospitals have been forced to stop performing procedures in order to make room for coronavirus patients. The Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Fars news agency interviewed the head of Pakdasht Zaeem hospital, who has had to take these measures because of an “unbridled” surge in coronavirus cases. “By shutting down the operations section and allocating the ICU section and 70 percent of the emergency section to coronavirus patients, nearly 80 percent of the hospital’s capacity is occupied by coronavirus patients,” he said.

Deflecting Blame

Regime officials are scrambling to deflect blame for the rapid increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths. When summoned to the Majlis (parliament) on Sunday, Health Minister Saied Namaki pointed to his early predictions about the spread of the virus in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the current state of affairs. “When the daily death toll was around 30, I wrote to the [Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ] and informed him about triple-digit death tolls in the coming weeks and months. Forecasts indicate that in the fall there is a more than 80 percent possibility of influenza cases coinciding with Covid-19,” he said, according to a report from the Fars news agency.

Regime officials are also struggling to explain the disparity between the official death counts released by Tehran and the actual figures reported by the MEK. Babak Negahdari, an advisor to Majlis speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, used a familiar strategy to try to counter this message in comments carried by Fars on Sunday. “These, in addition to the despised coronavirus, we are also dealing with the ‘Tirana’ virus. Each morning they are sitting behind their computers in the capital of Albania and attack social media platforms with an army of lies and distortions.” The regime has a long history of attacking the MEK when it feels threatened.

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