Iran says test kits sent to Turkey, though with delay, despite Turkish denial of delivery

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a tweet on Friday, May 8, that Iran had sent “40,000 advanced Iran-made test kits to #Germany, #Turkey and others.” On Monday, Turkish state news agency Anadolu cited “Turkish diplomatic sources” as saying that no test kits had arrived in Turkey from Iran.

The Parsis of India—Zoroastrians whose ancestors long ago emigrated to India—have remained ever faithful in their love for Iran. Grateful for their #Covid19 package for Iranians.

On Thursday, Kianoush Jahanpour, spokesman for the Iranian Health Ministry, said the kits had been detailed on a customs declaration on May 6 and gone through all other formalities but had been delayed due to restrictions in place on flights to Turkey because of the pandemic.

The kits were sent to Turkey a day later, that is on May 7, on a Qatar Airways flight, Jananpour explained.

It was unclear whether the Turkish sources cited in the Anadolu report had been fully briefed about deliveries to Turkey.

Turkey has registered 143,114 cases of infection with the new coronavirus. And 3,952 people have died of the disease caused by the virus (COVID-19) in Turkey.

Iran currently has 114,533 patients suffering from COVID-19, and 6,854 Iranians have lost their lives. Another 90,539 Iranians have recovered.

Iran’s outbreak began earlier than Turkey’s. While Iran faced shortages of some medical supplies just after the outbreak began and as demand suddenly soared, the country mobilized to produce all necessary supplies, such as face masks and disinfectant solutions.

Despite the large numbers of infected people, Iran also never faced a shortage of medical ventilators, as many other countries did.

Earlier this month, Iranian scientists also succeeded in producing COVID-19 test kits and got the necessary approvals to ship them overseas.