Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei Calls Anti-coronavirus Recommendations Mandatory for Everybody

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said strategies of the Health Ministry and its national headquarters are mandatory for all.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said strategies and recommendations adopted by Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education and its national headquarters, set up to manage the nationwide fight against coronavirus outbreak, are obligatory for all Iranians.

“The strategies adopted by the national headquarters and Health Ministry to prevent spread of [coronavirus] disease are obligatory for all people,” the Leader said in a Sunday message issued to commend the efforts made by relevant authorities to contain an ongoing virus outbreak.

Ayatollah Khamenei said the national mobilization plan drawn up to combat coronavirus, which has scientific support, is accompanied by religious, jihadi and humane motives.

“It is an efficient plan and is the very measure, which God willing, will turn the mishap into blessing and the threat into opportunity,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.

The Leader also thanked endeavors made by Iran’s Health Minister Saeed Namaki and the ministry’s staff to fight the coronavirus and wished them success.

Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced on Sunday that the number of coronavirus patients in the country has increased to 13,989, while the death toll rose to 724 people, adding that 4,790 coronavirus patients have also recovered so far.

Last Wednesday, 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 universities have been extended for the next two weeks.

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 earlier this 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.

Namaki said that the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached 22, and will increase to 40 soon.

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.