NEWS))))))

According to the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK), Saturday March 21, the number of Coronavirus deaths has risen to 8,800 in 201 cities across Iran. Based on reports from Qom 60 to 70 people die of Coronavirus every day, and mortuaries cannot accommodate them. Clerics in Qom have requested those in charge of Behesht-e-Zahra Cemetery in Tehran to bury some of the deceased in Qom, but those officials have rejected the request because of the large number of deaths in Tehran.
In Tehran at least 1,250 victims were buried in Behesht-e-Zahra by March 18. A large number of Coronavirus victims have been buried ostensibly under other causes. Several workers at the mortuary, including five women, who worked in sections not designated for Coronavirus victims, were infected with the virus. More than 100 people who are dying of Coronavirus are being transferred to Behesht-e-Zahra on a daily basis. A contract to dig 10,000 new graves in the cemetery has recently been signed.
While other countries around the world are compensating workers and employees so that they can stay at home, Hassan Rouhani said, “It’s the counter-revolutionaries’ conspiracy to shut down businesses and economic activity in Iran. We must not let this happen; we must all work within the framework of health protocols.” He urged people to “Stay at home for 10 to 15 days, don’t travel, and be cautious. This is not for two or three months, God willing, if we are careful, the circumstances will automatically change by April 1, 2020”.
On the other hand, Rouhani’s deputy minister of Health said, “We will get rid of the disease by the end of June if we observe the preventive measures.” He also added that “the economic, social and cultural situation in our country does not allow us to quarantine any city.”

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) emphasized that the main obstacle to confront Coronavirus is the incompetent, medieval dictatorship ruling Iran that has plundered the country’s resources either for repression and terrorism or in pursuit of its warmongering and unpatriotic nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Only a portion of the pillaged public funds stacked in IRGC or Khamenei affiliated cartels is sufficient to cover the necessary cost to cover Coronavirus preventive measures and pay the salaries of workers, nurses, teachers, and employees so that they would not have to go to work to make their ends meet.

Speaking of nurses, the deadly Coronavirus has taken the lives of more than 100 doctors and nurses and members of the medical community in Iran in their efforts to fight the Coronavirus.
The new names of female nurses and medical staff who died of Coronavirus have been compiled by the NCRI Women Committee, as follows:
Ms. Khoshgoftar, a staff member at Gilan University of Medical Sciences and the Secretariat of the (Fouman) Imam Hasan Mojtaba Hospital, and Anousheh Bikian, a midwife from the Alzahra Education, Research and Remedial Center, died of the coronavirus. (The state-run IRNA news agency – March 16, 2020)
Razieh Hosseininejad a retired health care worker from Babol also lost her life in the last days while serving her compatriots in the Coronavirus crisis. (The state-run Hamshahri Website – March 15, 2020)
In another report, Haniyeh Edalati, a staff member of the Medical Records Unit at Shafa Hospital in Takestan, was infected with Coronavirus after a period of serving patients and lost her life from the virus.
Also, Tahmineh Adibi, the emergency nurse at Beheshti Hospital in Bandar Anzali died of the deadly Coronavirus after a period of care and service to patients.
The death of medical staff at various hospitals in Iran is while they have not stopped for a moment to care for patients in these critical situations. However, the mullahs’ regime has taken no action to pay their wages. Nurses and staff at medical universities are facing delays in their payments for about 8 to 14 months! (The state-run Salamat News website – March 14, 2020)
One of the health experts said, “The highest number of Coronavirus infections among government employees is related to doctors and nurses, indicating that the medical and nursing staff are among the most dangerous, difficult and harmful occupations.” (The state-run Salamat News website – March 14, 2020)
The Iranian Resistance announced that by Monday afternoon, March 16, 2020, the number of Coronavirus fatalities exceeds 5,500 in 186 cities.
An official at the World Health Organization said the Iranian regime’s statistics of the Coronavirus are one fifth of the actual number. It is estimated that about 75,000 people in Iran are infected with Coronavirus.

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As the Coronavirus outbreak spreads across in Iran and in Iranian prisons, political prisoners are denied temporary release to avoid contracting the virus. Several women political prisoners in Evin and Qarchak prisons have started hunger strikes since several days ago to protest the regime’s policy of not releasing them on temporary leaves. Human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh started a hunger strike on Monday, March 16. In a letter from prison, she announced her decision and wrote, “It is a national need to shut down many wards of the country’s prisons, including the Women’s Ward of Evin. It is a nationalist need for the regime to reconcile with the world and take advantage of their science and technology to deal with the Corona disease.”
Political prisoner Rezvaneh Ahmad Khanbeigi also started a hunger strike on Monday, March 16, 2020.
Sona Hagh-Bayan went on a hunger strike on Thursday, March 12, to protest her 8-month detention and uncertainty in the “mothers’ ward” of Qarchak Prison of Varamin.
Ms. Hagh-Bayan is 36 years old and has a 9-year-old son who suffers from Down Syndrome. She had emigrated to Georgia where she worked as a tour guide. She was detained by the Ministry of Intelligence on June 30, 2019, upon arrival in Iran for a family visit.
In another development, the prison sentence of author and researcher, Mojgan Kavousi, was increased from 5 years and 7 months, to 6 years and 3 months. She's been charged for posting images of the martyrs of the November 2019 uprising in Marivan and Javanrud on her Instagram page. “Silence is treason,” Kavousi wrote in a post on her Instagram page.