TEHRAN: As Iran faces what looks like its worst wave of the coronavirus pandemic yet, Tehran commuters still pour into its subway system and buses each working day, even as images of the gasping ill are repeatedly shown on state television every night.
After facing criticism for downplaying the virus last year, Iranian authorities have put partial lockdowns and other measures back in place to try and slow the virus’ spread.
But in this nation of 84 million people, which faces crushing US sanctions, many struggle to earn enough to feed their families. Economic pressure, coupled with the growing uncertainty over when vaccines will be widely available in the Islamic Republic, have many simply giving up on social distancing, considering it an unaffordable luxury. That has public health officials worried the worst of the pandemic still may be yet to come.
“I cannot stop working,” said Mostafa Shahni, a worried 34-year-old construction worker in Tehran. “If I do, I can’t bring home bread for my wife and two kids.”
Iran is now reporting its highest-ever new coronavirus case numbers — more than 25,000 a day. Its daily death toll has surged to around 400, still below the grim record of 486 it reached in November.
During the peak of Iran’s last surge, around 20,000 coronavirus patients were hospitalized across the country. Today, that figure has topped 40,000. The health ministry warns the number will climb to 60,000 in the coming weeks. Iran remains among the hardest-hit countries in the world and the worst-hit in the Middle East.
Across Tehran, Associated Press journalists have seen signs of the pandemic’s toll.
At Tehran’s Shohadaye Tajrish Hospital, orderlies pushed the bodies of two victims of the coronavirus across a parking lot to its morgue, one wrapped in white, the other in a black body bag. All of its wards on five floors of the hospital are reserved for coronavirus patients. One empty gurney held a bouquet of roses left for a recently deceased man. A heart-shaped balloon hovered over a still respirator.
At the massive Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, already reeling from the pandemic, workers laid cinder-block rows of new graves. Mourners in black wept at a stream of funerals. Officials plan to open a new morgue at the site to handle the wave of death, much wrought by what Iranians simply call “corona.”
Saeed Khal, the director of Tehran’s main cemetery, said workers buried 350 bodies there on Tuesday alone — at least 150 had died of coronavirus. The cemetery had never processed that many burials in a single day, not even during Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s that saw 1 million people killed.
It was “one of the hardest and saddest days for my colleagues in the half-century-history of the cemetery,” Khal told state TV.
So much is the influx that some burials are being delayed by a day, unusual for Iran which follows the Islamic practice of immediately burying the dead.
Outside the gates of Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Hospital complex, where the capital’s poor can receive free treatment at its 1,300 beds, scores crowded around one recent day as guards turned away routine cases and allowed in only test-confirmed coronavirus cases.
“They say the wards are full of corona patients,” said Manijeh Taheri, who sought a regular thyroid treatment for her mother at the hospital. “I have no idea where to take her when such a huge complex has no place for my mother.”
Field hospitals are being prepared in Tehran and other major cities. State TV has shown images at hospitals outside the capital with patients being treated in hallways.
“We are not going out of the red zone any time soon,” Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi told state media.
President Hassan Rouhani blames the current surge on the fast-spreading variant of the virus first found in Britain, which the government says arrived from neighboring Iraq. Travel between the countries has been restricted since March, though people and commerce continue to cross each day. Overall, Iran has seen 2.2 million reported cases and 67,000 deaths in total.
Lawmaker Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadi blamed government mismanagement and continued US sanctions for the virus’ spread.
“Sanctions, challenges and wrong decisions will continue. We do not have sufficient vaccines so protect yourself and your relatives through personal health measures,” he wrote on Twitter.
As of now, Iran has administered over 500,000 vaccine doses, according to the WHO. Supplies, however, remain limited. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has banned US and British-made coronavirus vaccines, saying their import is “forbidden” because he does not trust those nations. Khamenei has approved the import of vaccines from “safe” countries, such as China and Russia, and has backed national efforts to produce a homegrown vaccine with help from Cuba.
But officials keep changing when they say the wider public will be vaccinated as it remains unclear when Tehran will have a promised 60 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
Amir Afkhami, an associate professor at George Washington University, said that over the past year, Iran’s leadership could point to superpowers like the US struggling to contain the virus. With vaccines rolled out in the West and economies reopening, this could become much more difficult to do, he said.
“Ultimately Iran is not self-sufficient when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine development, and it doesn’t have the (intensive care unit) beds to absorb the patients it needs to so it really needs external help,” Afkhami said.
Authorities across Iran have closed mosques, restaurants and parks during Ramadan, the Islamic holy fasting month being observed by Muslims around the world. An evening curfew for private cars is in place and travel between cities is banned. Parliament has been suspended for two weeks.
But the wider fatigue from the virus has seen people ignore warnings and host fast-breaking meals known as iftars indoors. Already, authorities blamed celebrations around the Iranian New Year known as Nowruz in March for contributing to this wave.
Masoud Mardani, an infectious disease specialist on Iran’s COVID-19 national task force, has demanded a public curfew. But none so far has come.
Sanctions-battered Iran, weary of pandemic, faces worst wave
https://arab.news/jmkqm
Sanctions-battered Iran, weary of pandemic, faces worst wave
- Iran is now reporting its highest-ever new coronavirus case numbers — more than 25,000 a day
- At the massive Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery, already reeling from the pandemic, workers laid cinder-block rows of new graves
Prime minister’s visit to southern Lebanon promotes trust in state
- Temporary market officially opened by Nawaf Salam during 2-day tour
BEIRUT: Nearly 15 months on from Israeli airstrikes which reduced Nabatieh’s historic market to rubble during the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, local civic leaders have stepped in to provide relief.
The war, which ended with a ceasefire in November 2024, left the southern Lebanese city’s centuries-old souk — a key commercial hub — devastated, displacing shop owners and crippling local trade.
In the absence of swift rebuilding by Hezbollah, which many affected residents had relied on, a group of non-partisan civic figures from Nabatieh launched an initiative about six months ago to establish a temporary alternative market.
The new market was officially opened on Sunday by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam during a two-day tour of southern Lebanon.
The visit began in Tyre and Naqoura, continued through Bint Jbeil and Aitaroun, and included stops in devastated border villages before reaching Hasbaya and Marjayoun, and finally concluding in Nabatieh.
Nabatieh’s market has long been one of the region’s most important commercial landmarks.
It served as a vital transit point for traders moving goods between Syria, Lebanon, and Jerusalem in the early 20th century.
It evolved over time into a bustling local marketplace central to the city’s economy and daily life.
The initiative highlights growing frustration among some residents over unfulfilled promises for reconstruction aid from Hezbollah following the conflict’s destruction.
Salam’s opening of the temporary facility underscores government efforts to support community-led recovery amid broader rebuilding challenges in the war-affected region.
The temporary market aims to restore essential commercial activity while permanent reconstruction is underway.
Mahdi Sadeq, executive director of project overseer Nabatieh Emergency Rescue Service Association, told Arab News: “The project is a joint initiative by business people, self-employed professionals, and financiers, some of whom belong to non-Muslim sects.”
Sadeq, who is the son of Sheikh Abdul Hussein Sadeq, Nabatieh’s imam, added: “The project’s significance lies in the fact that it is not tied to any form of patronage that would burden traders with political loyalties.
“This initiative brings 85 owners of destroyed shops, many in dire economic conditions, back to work without imposing any obligations on them — unlike partisan grants.
“It is an initiative that saves the historic market, restores the pulse of life to the people, and sets us on the path to recovery.”
Sadeq added that the importance of the initiative was the fact that Nabatieh “has a moderate and independent religious” character “that has asserted its presence among all forces.”
He said: “No one has been able to eliminate it: not the Palestinian factions that were present in southern Lebanon in the 1960s and 1970s, nor the Lebanese partisan forces that came afterwards. It has remained centrist and has enjoyed broad popular support.
“If people in the south are left without pressure being exerted on them, they are eager to be embraced by the state. The state is the foundation, and everything else is the exception.
“At the same time, there is a degree of caution, because the state has yet to assert its presence after the war and has, in a way, passed judgment on people in advance. Had it moved quickly to take the initiative, it would have reaped greater dividends.”
Architect Samir Ali Ahmad, who is in charge of the implementation of the project, said that “the alternative market was built on Waqf-owned land donated by the imam of Nabatieh for a limited period of no more than four or five years, until the main market is rebuilt.”
Ali Ahmad added: “The new market consists of prefabricated rooms. It also includes courtyards and a Khan-style market complex featuring cafes, restaurants, rest areas, playgrounds, and a parking lot.
“Once the project is completed, these rooms can be donated to the Lebanese army or to the poorest families.
“This market will enable residents to remain on their land and secure their livelihoods without being forced into displacement.”
Engineer Lina Ezzeddine, who contributed to the project through fundraising efforts, said: “Priority was given to destitute individuals who were unable to fend for themselves.”
She noted that “some merchants had succeeded in rebuilding their shops, others had moved to different locations, while some had died of heart attacks due to the shock of what had occurred.”
Ezzeddine stressed that “donors did not consider the political affiliations of the merchants.”
She added: “The only condition was that no political party be allowed to interfere. And, indeed, no party did.
“The people have endured many tragedies, and the prime minister’s participation in the opening of the alternative market sends a clear message that the state stands with them.
“The people of the south love their land and are deeply attached to it. How could they not stand with the state?”
Salam’s visit, which has been marked by numerous public gatherings and meetings with local figures, reflects the people’s renewed support of the state following a devastating war that was the result of Hezbollah’s unilateral move to take decisions on war and peace out of the hands of official authorities.
The scenes witnessed during Salam’s tour of the south have carried exceptional significance.
The scattering of roses and rice, the ululations that have welcomed him, and the banners bearing welcoming phrases to “the state of law and citizenship” indicate the desire of the people of the south to return to the protection of state institutions.
An official source said that they had recognized that “the state is the only safe haven, while all slogans raised outside its framework have brought nothing but destruction, poverty, and displacement.”
Salam reiterated that “the state’s presence in the area is a message in the face of this massive destruction, to which we will never surrender.”
He added: “The state is here to stay, not to visit and leave. The state is responsible for every southern village and for all people, without discrimination.
“The cohesion of southern villages, regardless of their affiliations, protects the entire region.
“The government will continue to exert relief, reconstruction, and economic recovery efforts. The path to recovery and reconstruction is proceeding within an integrated framework.”
Salam said the state’s presence was “a clear message in the face of immense destruction.”
On Saturday, the first day of his tour, Salam announced that $360 million had been secured to help rebuild areas in southern Lebanon, adding that the government would boost reconstruction projects once funding was ensured.
