Iran Focusing on Online Identification of Coronavirus Patients

The Iranian health ministry has launched online questionnaire forms and special public aid phone lines to identify and help treatment of patients infected with COVID-19 virus.

“Only in Zahedan (the provincial capital of Iran’s Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province), over 37,000 people have filled in the information forms about their health conditions in line with the electronic screening of people suspected of coronavirus infection,” Deputy Head of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences Mehdi Tabatabayee said on Thursday.

He added that all Iranian people can visit the health ministry’s website for the relevant coronavirus forms to inform the ministry of their health conditions.

Meantime, Deputy Head of Kermanshah province’s University of Medical Sciences Dr. Roshani told FNA that a phone line has been launched to provide the public with the needed help and information on how to take care of patients suspected of infection to COVID-19 virus at home.

He added that people can contact the center and ask their questions from medical experts.

Meantime, Head of the Civil Defense and Crisis Management of Mashhad city’s municipality Vahid Akmali said that several industrial sheds have been disinfected and prepared to be delivered to the health ministry as a medical center for the treatment of coronavirus patients.

Also, voluntary groups in different cities and towns, including Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari and Sistan and Balouchestan provinces, have embarked on the production of masks for the medical staff and people.

An official in the Western province of Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiari said that 13,000 masks are produced in 28 workshops every day by volunteers.

Also, Representative of Zahedan people in the parliament Hossein Ali Shahriari told FNA on Thursday that a workshop to produce facial masks has been set up in the countryside of Zahedan city to provide people’s needs.

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting 170 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 9,200 people and infected over 225,000 others globally.

Iran reported on Thursday 1,284 fatalities and 18,407 cases of infection. Meanwhile, 5,979 people have recovered.

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.