Alireza Zali, Chief of Coronavirus Combat Headquarters of Tehran, has said Friday studies show that between 14 to 20 percent of the residents of the Iranian capital have already contracted the coronavirus.
Speaking on a live news program Zali said the highest number of cases and fatalities were found in District Four of Tehran which is the most densely populated with 900,000 residents in the east of the capital. Districts 21 and 22 in the west of the capital have had the lowest number of cases and deaths, he said.
Tehran has a population of nearly 8.7 million but up to 3.5 million commute to the city at day time from its suburbs and nearby cities.
If 15 percent of people in Tehran are infected as the Coronavirus Combat Headquarters Chief says, that alone would mean more than a million cases which greatly contradicts the officially announced total of 217,000 cases for the whole country.
Iran’s official COVID-19 figures have been repeatedly questioned by some members of the parliament and other officials. They have asserted that the real coronavirus-related death toll in Iran is much higher than what the health ministry releases as official figures.
According to the latest official announcement on June 26, new cases in the last 24 hours amounted to 2,626 and new deaths 109. This brings have the total number of cases and deaths in the country to 217,724 and 10,239 respectively.
Several provinces in the west and south of the country, according to the Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima-Sadat Lari on Friday, are currently in critical circumstances.
