Viral Alarm Sounded in Tehran

Inadequate public transport infrastructure in Tehran Province has reduced the effectiveness of facemask wearing and contributed to soaring coronavirus infections, the province’s governor general warned.   
Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpey on Sunday discussed Tehran’s ongoing battle with the Covid-19 pandemic, pointing out that despite people’s adherence to health protocols, lack of public transport infrastructure and services accounts for the recent virus resurgence, IRNA reported.
“We are gravely concerned about Tehran. We need to continue to impose restrictions and supervise the implementation of coronavirus-related protocols to control the situation,” he said.
The provincial official advised Tehran’s residents to stay home as much as possible to lighten the public transport’s load and at the same time avoid high-risk environments, or as Bandpey put it, the city’s “Achilles’ heel”.
To curb the use of public transport, the province’s Covid-19 taskforce has asked city officials to allow the entry of personal cars into the capital’s restricted traffic zone, but the request has fallen on deaf ears.
The governor general said, “The province’s coronavirus taskforce has stressed the importance of abolishing the restricted zone, but the city’s municipality is not complying.”
According to Bandpey, Tehran Province is “not in a good state” with 4,500 Covid-19 hospitalizations throughout the region. 
“Coronavirus patients occupy half of all ICU beds in Tehran Province,” spokeswoman of Health Ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said during her daily briefing on Sunday.
She added, “Nine counties in Tehran Province are in an alarming state. The number of daily hospitalizations have doubled compared to a month ago.”
Bandpey expressed satisfaction with one of the containment measures taken by Iran’s administration, as compliance with the recent mandatory mask wearing in government offices has reached 70%.
The order, issued several weeks ago by the National Coronavirus Taskforce, is not being strictly observed in doctor’s clinics and restaurants. While Bandpey did not give a percentage, he called the adherence rates in such places “unacceptable”.

Intensified Inspections 

In line with Bandpey’s demand for greater supervision, Lari said the Health Ministry’s inspections of business places have increased by 21% in the past 12 days.
The spokeswoman said, “1,714 places of business were shut down after issuing a warning. The ministry has conducted 19,994 joint inspections with other authorities.”
The health official also gave an update on the pandemic, saying 2,333 were diagnosed with Covid-19 within a 24-hour period, over half of whom required hospitalization.
The freshly identified patients took Iran’s tally to 291,172. Overnight fatalities from the coronavirus pandemic reached 216, bringing the death toll to 15,700.
Some 3,700 are hospitalized in intensive care units across the country, Lari said, the highest number of critically ill patients so far.
Iran has carried out 2.32 million diagnostic tests since the start of the outbreak.
Over 16.2 million have contracted the deadly virus worldwide and 650,000 have died.