Deputy Commander: Nearly 2,000 Hospital Beds Made by IRGC for Coronavirus Patients

“Today, we have prepared 800 beds in field hospitals and 1,120 beds for the patients who are recovering,” General Abdollahi told FNA on Tuesday.

He added that the IRGC has also allocated 70% of its hospital beds to coronavirus patients and helped the government in screening nearly 70mln people in Iran for infection to COVID-19 virus.

“Now, over 2,700 coronavirus patients are being treated at the IRGC’s medical centers and a part of them have recovered,” General Abdollahi said.

He also said that Basij (volunteer) forces have distributed over 100,000 aid packages among the poor people and those who have lost their jobs after the coronavirus outbreak across the country, upon the IRGC commander’s order.

Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced on Monday that over 60,000 people in the country have been infected with coronavirus, including 2,274 new cases in the last one day, adding that 3,739 patients have also died so far.

“2,274 new cases of coronavirus infection have been identified since Sunday, increasing the number of infected people to 60,500,” Jahanpour said.

He noted that unfortunately, 136 patients infected with COVID-19 virus have lost their lives since Sunday, raising the total toll to 3,739 people.

Jahanpour, meantime, voiced pleasure that the recovery of coronavirus patients in Iran has sped up, saying that 24,236 people have been treated so far.

He also voiced concern that 4,083 coronavirus patients in Iran are in critical conditions.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has so far killed more than 74,700 people and infected over 1.34 million others globally.

The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until late April.

The government also imposed travel restrictions, specially on Iran’s North, which is among the red zones. The country has also adopted strict digital health control procedures at airports to spot possible infections.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced last month that a new national mobilization plan would be implemented across the country to fight against the coronavirus epidemic and more effectively treat patients.

Namaki said that the plan will include all the 17,000 health centers and the 9,000 medical and clinical centers in all cities, suburban areas and villages.

He added that the plan will include home quarantine, noting that infected people will receive the necessary medicines and advice, but they are asked to stay at home.

Namaki said that people with a more serious condition will stay at the hospitals, adding that the public places will be disinfected, the entries of infected towns and cities will be controlled to diagnose and quarantine the infected cases.

He added that the necessary equipment and facilities have been provided, expressing the hope that the epidemic would be curbed.

According to the latest statistics of Health Ministry, the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached over 90 across the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Iran’s response to the virus has so far been up to the mark. Still, it says the US sanctions are a big challenge, and Washington would be complicit in the rising death toll in Iran if it would not remove its sanctions.

The World Health Organization has considered priorities in combating coronavirus and Islamic Republic of Iran obeys and follows up priorities as defined by WHO.

The WHO is dispatching separate delegations to all countries.