Iran's President Rouhani defends measures taken by govt despite 147 new coronavirus deaths

As the deadly coronavirus continues to spread to over 160 countries, Iran has said on March 18 that COVID-19 has killed 147 more people marking a new single-day record in the virus stricken country. While the death toll has now risen to 1,135, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani defended its government’s efforts to stem the spread of the fatal virus and said that despite not announcing a lockdown, the government as “intervened significantly” and stopped the disease from spreading. 

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Coronavirus which originated in the Chinese province of Wuhan in December 2019, has now infected over 17,000 people in the Islamic republic and Rouhani said that “some ask why the government isn’t intervening” but he further adds, “I think we have intervened significantly”. Further lauding his government, Iranian President said that “great things” have been done in order to contain the easily spread COVID-19. He also assured that the country will “get past the hard days”, however, despite other preventive measures, Iran is yet to impose any lockdown while the virus has spread to all its 31 provinces. 

Oldest person to beat coronavirus

The new rise in Iran’s death toll due to coronavirus infection came as Iranian state media reported that a 103-year-old woman has been cured of deadly coronavirus infection in the Islamic Republic despite the significant evidence that elderly people are most vulnerable to the pathogen. The unnamed woman had been hospitalised in the central city of Semnan for at least seven days, and reportedly the head of the hospital, Navid Danayi has said that she was “discharged after making a complete recovery”. 

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In a country which is one of the most hard-hit of COVID-19 infections after China, the 103-year-old woman was also the second elderly patient who has been fully cured of the disease. While to total coronavirus cases in Iran have reached over 17,000 as of March 18, a 91-year-old man from Kerman, in the southeast of Iran also survived after contracting COVID-19.

According to an international news agency, the man was recovered on March 16 after being sick for three days despite having pre-existing medical conditions including high blood pressure and asthma. However, the reports have not mentioned how both the elderly patients of the fatal virus were treated. Even though the World Health Organisation has stated that the fatality rate of the novel virus is 3.4 per cent, it has also derived that the elderly people are most vulnerable to the disease which first originated in the Chinese province of Wuhan. The fatality rate for older people, above the age of 80 is 21.9 per cent. 

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(With agency inputs)