Corona virus in Iran: death penalty for hoarding masks and supplies

Iran is particularly badly affected by the corona virus. Citizens hoarding breathing masks and supplies get the death penalty.

• Iran is affected by the spread of the corona virus
• Officially, there are 15 deaths from the virus in Iran, 95 people are infected
• Iran's Deputy Minister of Health, Iradsch Harirtschi, has now also tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 .

Update of March 4th, 2020, 11:39 am: In Iran , the hoarding of respiratory masks and supplies has been punished with the death penalty . Around three dozen government officials have been infected there. There is chaos and fear, a doctor reports in the "New York Times". The country's attorney general said the report threatened to execute people hoarding masks and other supplies.

Update from 01.03.2020, 1.30 p.m .: The number of people who die from the corona virus in Iran is increasing inexorably. The number of infected people is also increasing rapidly. According to official bodies, 54 people died within 24 hours, and a total of 978 are currently infected with the corona virus.

Coronavirus in Iran: spokesman denies report of more than 200 deaths

The capital Tehran is particularly badly affected. At the same time, 175 coronavirus patients were cured and discharged from the hospitals, according to the Jahanpur.

Contrary to the forecasts of the Ministry of Health, the situation in Iran has deteriorated drastically in the past few days. The army and even the Revolutionary Guards are said to help the government fight the virus. Many foreigners want to leave the country on the recommendation of their foreign ministries. Some foreign media representatives have also decided to temporarily close their offices in Tehran. Japanese media workers want to leave the country.

Update from February 29, 2020, 2:15 p.m .: How many people died in Iran from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus? At least 210, according to a BBC report citing hospital circles. A spokesman for the Iranian Ministry of Health denies this: So far, 43 people have died from the novel corona virus and 593 people have been infected, the spokesman accuses the foreign media of spreading false information.

"What we publish as final statistics is based on the latest final results from laboratory tests," the spokesman continued. He denounced "rumors" and "wrong and contradictory content" from media that "were not positive for the Iranian people". In no other country outside of China have so many people died of the novel corona virus as in Iran.

Update of February 28, 2020, 1:15 p.m .: According to official figures, the death toll from the coronavirus epidemic in Iran has risen to 34. The Tehran Ministry of Health said Friday that eight more deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. In addition, 143 new contagion cases have been identified, said the ministry spokesman Kianusch Jahanpur. This means that 388 people are now infected with the causative agent of the lung disease Covid-19.

Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in Iran: number of deaths is increasing

Update of February 27, 2020, 6.55 p.m .: Iranian soccer player Elham Sheikhi has died of the corona virus . The 23-year-old was already suffering from Covid-19 lung disease last week and died on Wednesday in the city of Qom, according to a report by the Rokna news portal.

Update of February 27, 2020, 3:26 p.m .: Iran's Vice Minister Massoumeh Ebtekar has been reported to be infected with the corona virus. This is reported by journalist Natalie Amiri. She is a correspondent for the ARD in Iran and refers to the report in an Iranian daily newspaper. Masoumeh Ebtekar was the first female member in the Iranian cabinet since 1979 and is now Vice President for Women and Family Affairs.

So I won't send my team to the PK of the government spokesman either. #Coronavirus #Iran https://t.co/AIGCQ6NWu0

It is probably not the only member of the government that has contracted the coronavirus. It is now known that the Deputy Minister of Health, Iradsch Harirtschi, is also infected. Due to current developments, the Friday prayer in Tehran has been canceled. Iran is badly hit by the virus: the death toll is officially 26.

Coronavirus in Iran: 26 killed by epidemic

Update from February 27, 2020, 1:29 pm: The death toll from the coronavirus epidemic has risen to 26 in Iran, according to official figures. The Tehran Ministry of Health said Thursday that seven more deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours. In addition, 106 new contagion cases have been identified, said the ministry spokesman Kianusch Jahanpur. This means that 245 people are now infected with the causative agent of the lung disease Covid-19.

On Wednesday, the Iranian Ministry of Health reported 139 people infected and 19 dead. If the official numbers are correct, the mortality rate in Iran would be extremely high. A high number of unreported infections is feared.

Coronavirus in Iran: Airplane landed in Ankara with 17 suspected cases - Turkey closes border crossings

Update of February 27, 2020, 9:24 a.m .: The coronavirus epidemic in Iran plunges the country's tourism into a new crisis. "With a view to the Corona eruption, this year is a drought year for tourism," said Javad Musawi, director of tourism in the Iranian Organization for Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, according to the Iranian business newspaper "Eghtesad-e Donja".

The outbreak with dozens of people infected with Covid-19 hits Iran's tourism industry almost a month before the Persian New Year "Norus", the main travel season within Iran. The number of Covid 19 deaths rose to 19 . According to the government in Tehran, the virus has been confirmed in a total of 135 people from different parts of the country.

Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 in Iran: 90 percent of the hotels are empty

According to the business newspaper, 90 percent of hotels in Mashhad, the second largest city in Iran, remained empty due to concerns about the coronavirus . 75 percent of the trips were canceled. Meanwhile, the neighboring countries of Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan temporarily closed the borders. Air traffic to Iran has been restricted.

Most recently, Iran's tourism had already slumped considerably with the killing of a Ukrainian passenger plane in early January, with 176 deaths. Up to 70 percent of trips abroad to Iran were canceled at short notice, the Iranian Tourism Association reported two weeks later. Due to the tense situation, the German travel operator Studiosus canceled all trips to Iran by the end of April.

Coronavirus in Iran: Airplane landed in Ankara with 17 suspected cases - Turkey closes border crossings

Update from 26.02.2020, 10.33 a.m .: With the increasing number of Sars-CoV-2 infections in Iran , the corona virus threatens to spread more and more in the Gulf region. Iran's neighboring countries Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported several new cases of patients who had previously traveled to Iran. Some countries in the Arab region tried to prevent spreading through reduced travel connections with Iran.

Meanwhile, a plane from Tehran landed in Ankara on Tuesday. According to the German edition of the Turkish daily Hürriyet, there is concern that 17 people on board are infected with the corona virus. All 132 passengers and the crew were quarantined after landing.

Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Tuesday that all border crossings to Iran have been closed since February 23. Flights to four major Iranian cities have been canceled. There are only two planes a day between Turkey and Tehran, but only for Iranians who want to return home. According to Koca, there is still no officially confirmed case of corona infection in Turkey.

Coronavirus in Iran: Vice Minister tries to talk the crisis down - now he is apparently infected himself

First report from February 25th, 2020:

Tehran - The coronavirus * is spreading more and more worldwide. The country of origin China and other East Asian countries are particularly affected. Cases have been on the rise in Iran for a few days now.

Coronavirus in Iran: Vice Minister of Health Harirtschi infected with Sars-CoV-2

According to official information from the Iranian Ministry of Health on Tuesday, the number of fatalities reported in Iran has now risen from 12 to 15. In addition, 95 people - 34 more than the previous day - from different parts of the country had been tested in the meantime.

The Iranian deputy minister of health and the country's direct coronavirus officer have also contracted the virus, as several media representatives report independently of one another. This was also confirmed by the state news agency Irna. As a result, Iradsch Harirtschi himself tested positive for Sars-CoV-2 . "I've been a Corona since last night," said Harirtschi in a video message on state television on Tuesday. Natalie Amiri, head of the ARD office in Tehran , and the Arab news channel Al Jazeera spread the video message of the Iranian Vice Minister of Health on Twitter.

The #Iran deputy health minister has been infected with the #Coronavirius, he says here in a video message. He's been writing to journalists and officials about the #virus in the past few days. Officially, 16 have died in Iran in the meantime. https://t.co/xPLiWv5vYV

Corona virus: Infected health minister Harirtschi tried to downplay the corona crisis

The deputy minister had tried in recent days to downplay the country's corona crisis . At least that's what ultra-conservative MP Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani said. He said Monday the Isna news agency said the leadership in Tehran said "not the truth" about the epidemic.

Harirtschi had denied the allegations by the MP, who had accused the government of obscuring the facts about the spread of the corona virus . According to the Ilna news agency, Amirabadi Farahani even named the number of "50 deaths" from the virus in the central Iranian city of Kom alone. "I categorically contradict this information," Harirtschi said at the time.

Iran's Deputy Minister of Health, Iradsch Harirtschi (left), was infected with the corona virus.

© Iranian Presidency / AFP

Farahani is not alone in his concerns. Many people fear that there are far more dead and infected people than is known to date. Disinfectants are sold out in almost all drugstores, pharmacies and supermarkets in Tehran.

Coronavirus in Iran: Did Minister of Health already show signs of illness at press conference?

Another video that circulates on Twitter shows Harirtschi at a press conference on Monday. Raf Sanchez, Middle East correspondent for the British Telegraph, also shared the video. He wrote: “Iraj Harirtschi, Iran's deputy health minister, said yesterday on TV that the Iranian government has the coronavirus spread under control. Today it was announced that he himself was ill. ”The video shows how Harirtschi dabs sweat from his face with a cloth. One of the main symptoms of the coronavirus * is fever.

Iraj Harirchi, Iran's deputy health minister, went on TV yesterday (left) to insist the Iranian government was getting the #coronavirus outbreak under control.

Today it was announced Harirchi himself has the virus. pic.twitter.com/dO0RgLyydk

dpa / md / afp

More and more countries in Europe are affected by the coronavirus epidemic. It is currently the worst in Italy. In Tenerife (Canary Islands), over 1000 guests of a hotel had to be quarantined due to an infected vacationer. The corona virus continues to spread. NRW reports the first cases. Germany is gearing up for the epidemic.

The State of Hesse is well prepared for possible coronavirus cases, said Social Minister Kai Klose.

Maybrit Illner deals with the corona virus in her TV talk: Virologist Christian Drosten predicts: "It will be bad"

The first German to become infected with the coronavirus expressed himself for the first time. The time in quarantine was very boring.

The corona virus is more deadly than influenza *, explains the Robert Koch Institute. But it is difficult to calculate this.

* fr.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network

Rubric list picture: © picture alliance / Rouzbeh Fouladi / ZUMA Wire / dpa