In an unprecedented statement, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has come out and said that there are over 25 million Iranians who have been infected with the novel coronavirus and said that another 35 million are at risk.
The figures revealed by Rouhani were based on a report done by the Health Ministry shows that the numbers are far higher than Iran’s official figure of 269,440. Rouhani did not address the discrepancy in the numbers. The total population of Iran is little more than 80 million and it has been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the Middle East region. In the speech, Rouhani said,
“Our estimate is that as of now 25 million Iranians have been infected with this virus and about 14,000 have lost their dear lives. There is a possibility that between 30 and 35 million other people will be at risk. In total, more than 200,000 people have been hospitalized now.”
Scary Estimate By Iran
According to the Health Ministry report, 13,791 people have died because of COVID-19. With this, Iran becomes the first country to acknowledge the massive infection rate of the virus. The United States which is regarded as the worst-hit country in the world as per official figures has just over 3 million cases.
If the report by Iran’s health ministry is true, more than 80 percent of the Iran population might be infected by the novel coronavirus which is higher than the prediction by many studies including the World Health Organisation. This comes off as alarming to the world which is craving good news among the pandemic. This might be a massive set back for many governments in fighting the coronavirus pandemic. However, the report hasn’t mentioned the severity of the infection.
It will be curious to see how the World Health Organisation will react to this report and how other governments will take a cue from this.
Source: Livemint
