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70m Iranians screened, 56,000 traced COVID-19, 3,452 died, 20,000 recovered
0.4m Americans screened, 3,56,710 traced COVID-19, 8,994 died 11,102 recovered
05-04-2020
By SJA Jafri + Int’l News Desk + Agencies + Bureau Reports
TEHRAN/ NEW YORK: American President Donald Trump has warned the United States is entering what could be its “toughest” week yet as the number of coronairus cases in the country surged past 300,000.
“There will be a lot of death, unfortunately,” he told reporters at the White House on Saturday. “This will be probably the toughest week – between this week and next week.”
More than 8,000 people have died in the US from the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus, known as COVID-19. The state of New York, where the virus has killed more than 3,500 people, reported another record in its daily toll – 630 deaths – on Saturday.
In hard-hit Italy, the death toll rose to 15,362, while Spain reported a total of 11,744 deaths.
Spain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates extended restrictions on movements in a bid to contain the virus, while Kuwait and Georgia reported their first deaths from COVID-19.
Globally, the death toll surpassed 60,000, according to the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, and the number of infections rose above 1.2 million.
US accused of ‘piracy’ over mask ‘confiscation’
The US has been accused of redirecting 200,000 Germany-bound masks for its own use, in a move condemned as “modern piracy”.
The local government in Berlin said the shipment of US-made masks was “confiscated” in Bangkok.
The FFP2 masks, which were ordered by Berlin’s police force, did not reach their destination, it said.
Andreas Geisel, Berlin’s interior minister, said the masks were presumably diverted to the US.
The US Company that makes the masks, 3M, has been prohibited from exporting its medical products to other countries under a Korean-War-era law invoked by President Donald Trump.
Deputy Commander of Iran’s Basij Force said around 70 million people across the country have been screened for the novel coronavirus in a plan implemented with the participation of over 50,000 teams from Basij.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Brigadier General Mohammad Hossein Sepehr highlighted the measures to contain the coronavirus epidemic, saying around 70 million people in Iran have been screened for the disease with the help of more than 50,000 screening teams of the Basij.
Under a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, more than 600,000 Basij forces have taken part in the countrywide plan to help various organizations in the battle with coronavirus, he noted.
Basij is duty-bound to give assistance to all organizations of the Islamic Republic, he said, adding that Basij has called on academic centers, knowledge-based companies and people to propose their innovative ideas for the fight against the coronavirus in the health sector and management field.
In a letter to commander of Basij, Minister of Health Saeed Namaki has expressed his gratitude to the volunteer forces for their close cooperation with the medical staff and for contribution to the national mobilization plan for the fight against COVID-19.
Basij is a paramilitary voluntary force established in 1979 on late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini’s order.
The force consists of often young Iranians, who have volunteered, with a strong sense of fidelity to both the Islamic system and religious beliefs.
Meanwhile, The number of coronavirus patients in Iran exceeded 55,000 on Saturday, of whom around 20,000 have recovered and left the hospital, the Health Ministry’s spokesman announced.
Speaking at a daily press conference on April 4, Kianoosh Jahanpoor said the number of people tested positive for COVID-19 across the country has risen to 55,743 following the detection of 2,560 new cases since Friday noon.
He also noted that 19,736 coronavirus patients have recovered from the disease so far and have been discharged from the hospital.
According to Jahanpoor, the coronavirus death toll in Iran now stands at 3,452 after 158 patients lost their lives during the past 24 hours.
Among the coronavirus patients undergoing treatment in the hospital at present, 4,103 ones have critical health conditions due to more severe infection, he said.
More than 1,130,000 people have been infected with COVID-19 globally, and the death toll has exceeded 60,000.
Earlier, an American political analyst said the slow response to the quickly worsening coronavirus crisis in the US is “primarily due to the incompetence of the leadership in the White House”.
“The slow response is primarily due to the incompetence of the leadership in the White House. As a national emergency, such as in wartime, direction and support needs to come from a single source, even though we have 50 independent states. President Trump has proven with this crisis that he is incapable of handling this crisis, as he had underplayed the severity of it in the beginning and provided false narratives and misleading information,” Myles Hoenig, who ran for the US Congress in 2016 as a Green Party candidate, told Tasnim in an interview.
