Health Minister Underlines Free Treatment Service to Coronavirus Patients

Namaki ordered the chancellors of medical universities across the country to receive coronavirus patients free of charge.

Health Ministry officials had also earlier underlined that even foreigners residing in Iran are subject to the same rule and could receive corona-related treatment services at state hospitals free of charge.

Meantime, Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said that some 3,000 more fully-equipped hospital and pre-hospital beds have been prepared for COVID-19 patients.

"Nearly 3,000 beds have been prepared after equipping them with ventilators and monitors," Harirchi said.

"Fortunately, for the past month and so, we were not in circumstances like the advanced European and American countries, who claim to lead the world and are members of G-7, to say that we won't hospitalize plus-70 patients; rather in our country, patients aged 94 and 100 have recovered at intensive care units," he added.

Meanwhile, an official with the Iranian Red Crescent Society said that more than 21 million travelers have been screened all over the country from March 17-April 2.

Moreover, Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Reza Rahmani said that Iran will considerably increase the daily production of face masks in the coming weeks amid increasing anti-coronavirus campaign.

"The daily production of face masks in Iran will hit 4 million by mid-April amid the country’s efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic," Rahmani said.

He noted that Iran’s daily capacity for production of face mask was about to 700,000 before the outbreak of the pandemic, and said the Iranian production units are now working round the clock.

The minister also said that the country’s production of washing liquids and alcohol have grown eight-fold and twenty-fold, respectively in less than two months.

Production of protective gloves have more than doubled, Rahmani said, noting that the country used to produce some 2 million pairs of protective gloves a day before the outbreak of the disease while it is now producing 4.5 million pairs.

The minister said that Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) has supplied the Ministry of Health with 10 million protective face masks while nearly 20 million other face masks have been imported over the past few weeks.

Moreover, Vice-President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari said that two knowledge-based firms in the country have produced 250,000 kits to diagnose coronavirus so far, stressing their potential to manufacture 100,000 kits per week.

"The cycle of innovation has led to the development of modern diagnostic kits, with two of the Iranian enterprises producing 250,000 of the devices so far," Sattari said.

"The companies possess the potential to produce as many as 100,000 of the kits per week," he added.

Meantime, Tehran Mayor stressed that there have not been a single case of coronavirus infection among the special resting places for addicts.

Several medical centers and universities of medical sciences have also started telemedicine services to provide the public with psychological and medical counseling on coronavirus.

Also, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani that there is no disagreement either between the government organs or the three branches of power in combating coronavirus disease.

The president added that all people are working together along with the armed forces to combat the pandemic.

Elsewhere, Deputy Ministry of Science, Research and Technology Masoud Boroumand announced that the Ministry will back national and international researches in line with combating coronavirus.

“National Supercomputer Network of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology will back all national and international researches in line with fighting against coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, and socioeconomic consequences of its spread”, Masoud Boroumand wrote in separate letters sent to the Ministry of Health and Medical Education and chancellors of the universities, higher education centers and IT parks.

Meantime, Iranian experts at a research center affiliated to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) developed a new electrooptical system for rapid diagnosis of coronavirus-infected cases in crowded environments.

“The system includes a thermal camera, a visual camera and a temperature standard,” the executive director of the project told FNA on Sunday.

He added that the system has been developed in 25 days and can be used in crowded areas, including subways, hospitals and shopping centers, noting that it has passed its preliminary tests at the emergency unit of Baqiyatallah hospital for four days and displayed the capability to screen people without causing any public anxiety.

“The system can detect body temperature over 37 degrees. We are ready to mass-produce it,” he said.

Head of Pasteur Institute of Iran Ali Reza Biglari also announced that tens of laboratories across the country are now conducting coronavirus tests on nearly 15,000 people every day.

“Today, a laboratorial network has been created in the country with 95 laboratories which diagnose coronavirus in blood samples,” Biglari said.

He added that all Iranian provinces are now equipped with one or two labs which carry out tests on over 15,000 samples of suspected coronavirus patients every day and declare the results in 24 hours.

Biglari also said that at present 5 Iranian knowledge-based companies are producing kits to diagnose coronavirus in suspected people.

A high ranking official at the Iranian Ministry of Defense also said that scientists of the ministry are going to produce the third generation of COVID-19 test kits.

“First-generation kits are identified as N gene; we have designed and produced the second generation of kits that were stronger regarding the detection ability. God willing, we will have the third generation of kits that will rely on Rdrp gene,” Head of the Emergency and Medical Department of the Ministry Reza Allahveran said.

“The Defense Ministry’s duty in the first place is to provide defense equipment for the armed forces", he said. "However, given the scientific capacity of the ministry, we can address the needs of the country during the COVID-19 outbreak,” he added.

Head of Iran’s Currency Savings Trust in Patients Treatment Mehdi Yousefi announced on Sunday that the country is now able to produce 40 ventilators and 50,000 N95 masks each day to be used at medical centers in the fight against coronavirus.

“We have 8-folded production of ventilators and reached 40 machines from 5 machines (since the start of coronavirus epidemic),” Yousefi told reporters via video conference.

He also added that 50,000 N95 masks are also produced every day by the Iranian companies, but meantime mentioned that the volume is not yet enough to meet the country’s needs necessitating imports to continue.

Yousefi said that 85% of anti-coronavirus health and hygiene products supplied to the universities of medical sciences across the country were home-made, adding that production of masks in Iran has 3-folded compared to the pre-coronavirus era.

He also underlined plans to deliver 4,000 new ICU beds to the hospitals across Iran by the yearend (late March).

The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has so far killed more than 65,000 people and infected over 1.2 million others globally.

As for Iran, the Iranian health ministry announced on Sunday that 2,483 new cases of infection to COVID-19 virus have been identified in the country, adding that 3,603 patients have died so far.

“According to definite diagnostic standards, a sum of 2,483 new cases of infection to COVID-19 virus have been identified in Iran during the past 24 hours, increasing the number of infections to 58, 226,” Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said.

He added that fortunately, 22,011 patients infected with COVID-19 virus have also recovered and been discharged from hospital.

Jahanpour said that 151 coronavirus patients have passed away during the past 24 hours, noting that the death toll has increased to 3,603 so far.

The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.

Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closure of schools and universities has been extended until early April.

The government also imposed travel restrictions, specially on Iran’s North, which is among the red zones. The country has also adopted strict digital health control procedures at airports to spot possible infections.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced earlier this month that a new national mobilization plan would be implemented across the country to fight against the coronavirus epidemic and more effectively treat patients.

Namaki said that the plan will include all the 17,000 health centers and the 9,000 medical and clinical centers in all cities, suburban areas and villages.

He added that the plan will include home quarantine, noting that infected people will receive the necessary medicines and advice, but they are asked to stay at home.

Namaki said that people with a more serious condition will stay at the hospitals, adding that the public places will be disinfected, the entries of infected towns and cities will be controlled to diagnose and quarantine the infected cases.

He added that the necessary equipment and facilities have been provided, expressing the hope that the epidemic would be curbed.

According to the latest statistics of Health Ministry, the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached 90 across the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Iran's response to the virus has so far been up to the mark. Still, it says the US sanctions are a big challenge, and Washington would be complicit in the rising death toll in Iran if it would not remove its sanctions.

The World Health Organization has considered priorities in combating coronavirus and Islamic Republic of Iran obeys and follows up priorities as defined by WHO.

The WHO is dispatching separate delegations to all countries.

Source: MehrNEWS