That Escalated Quickly: Iran's relationship with coronavirus

Just two weeks ago, when the world began panicking over the spread of the novel coronavirus, leaders in Iran confidently believed their country would be immune to the contagion that has killed thousands in China alone. One even ridiculed quarantines as "belonging to an era before the First World War." Little did they know Iran would become the epicenter of the infection in the Middle East. 

The reported coronavirus cases in Iran outnumber those of any other Middle Eastern country and the death rate in the Islamic Republic is the highest outside of China, where the virus originated. Things escalated pretty quickly internally in Iran and externally from Iran. 

Hundreds of cases of the new strain of coronavirus have now been confirmed in Arab countries. The first case to be reported in the region was of an individual in the UAE on Jan. 29; the total number of cases (at the time of writing) in the Emirati nation stand at 27. But the virus' spread has been pretty contained in the UAE. 

The Arab region only started seeing an escalation in the rates of infections after pilgrims from Iran traveled back to their home countries. 

Lebanon confirmed its first case of the virus mid-February in a woman who had recently been to Iran; she has since recovered, testing negative on Tuesday. The total of infected individuals in Lebanon has climbed to 13, the country's health ministry reported on Monday. 

People arriving back from Iran to Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, and Iraq also tested positive for the virus. As of March 2, Kuwait has a total of 56 cases, Bahrain a total of 49, Oman a total of 12, and Iraq a total of 32 cases and reported its first death. (All these cases were of individuals who had been in Iran.) 

Nations across the region have since halted scheduled passenger flights arriving from Iran and other countries where outbreaks of the virus have been confirmed. 

On Feb. 24, there were debates on the death toll caused by COVID-19 in Iran. That day, a lawmaker from the Iranian holy city of Qom said the death toll fed by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) had reached 50. Those numbers were rejected by Iran's deputy health minister who said there had only been 12 deaths. 

At the time of writing, it was reported that at least 92 people have died in Iran from the virus, as per the official death toll, and over 2,922 people have been infected. The authenticity of those numbers has been compromised after a late February BBC News report, which cited hospital sources, said the death toll in the Islamic Republic was actually 210. 

As of Tuesday, 23 Iranian MPs have been infected, according to CNN. That's 8 percent of Iran's parliament. The country's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi is among those who tested positive for the virus just a day after he appeared physically uncomfortable during a press conference last month.

Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iranian vice president for women and family affairs, has also been infected with the coronavirus. A key adviser to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Mirmohammadi, has died from it. The parliament has been suspended indefinitely, and lawmakers have been asked to stop meeting with the public.

On Tuesday, it was reported that the head of Iran's emergency medical services, Pirhossein Kolivand, has contracted COVID-19. 

Kolivand's "health is good and there is no need for concern," his office said in a statement, according to The Independent.

That same day, Khamenei also announced that the country's military was prepared to help health officials tackle the coronavirus outbreak. He advised Iranians to follow the recommendations of authorities to restrict the spread of the virus. 

"Don't violate the recommendations and instructions of the responsible authorities in terms of prevention, in terms of keeping hands, face and living environment clean and not infecting these and preventing the infection of these," he said. 

At the same time, he kind of downplayed the issue, saying:

"The issue is an issue that will pass. It's not something extraordinary. I don't want to minimize the issue but let's not make it very big either."

Health minister Saeed Namaki announced on Sunday a plan to dispatch  300,000 soldiers and volunteers to screen residents and disinfect their homes. And then two days later, Iran's health ministry reportedly urged citizens to stay at home as the number of infected individuals spiked. The country has also temporarily released around 54,000 prisoners "in an effort to combat the spread of the new coronavirus disease in crowded jails."

Yet, shrines in the cities of Qom and Mashhad are still open, despite Qom being a hotspot for the virus. Two men were recently filmed licking holy shrines in Iran; they could face jail time for ignoring the coronavirus health warnings. 

But isn't the problem the fact that the shrines are still open? Iran has closed schools and universities to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but not holy sites. However, measures such as disinfecting the holy shrines have been taken to protect visitors.

Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist, recently told the BBC that "arresting these two people is not enough as the religious centers are still open in Qom and other cities where people are suffering from coronavirus."

Iran's "unwillingness to restrict large-scale visits to these shrines is criminal," Amir A. Afkhami, a medical doctor and historian at George Washington University, told The New York Times.