More than 10,000 health care workers in Iran infected with coronavirus, official says

May 22, 2020

Some 10,000 health care workers in Iran have been infected with the coronavirus, Iranian news agencies reported Thursday.  

The semi-official ISNA news outlet quoted Deputy Health Minister Qassem Janbabaei who confirmed the estimate. The Health Ministry had previously acknowledged more than 100 health care workers had died from the virus.  

“It is also an honor to live in a country where the educated medical community and medical staff are doing what our young people did at the beginning of the revolution,” Janbabaei said. 

On Thursday, Iran recorded 2,392 more cases of the coronavirus, bringing the total to 129,341 and 7,249 deaths. On Monday, Iran recorded its biggest single-day rise in COVID-19 cases in six weeks.  

Experts have accused Iran of downplaying the extent of its coronavirus crisis and vastly undercounting cases. The real death toll could be twice as high, the Iranian parliament’s research center said in April, with Iranian officials reportedly only recording virus deaths that occurred in hospitals, not homes.