IRGC Spokesman:

Over 100,000 IRGC, Basij Forces Mobilized to Fight against Coronavirus

Spokesman of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Brigadier General Ramezan Sharif said on Wednesday that the IRGC has mobilized 100,000 of its members as well as Basij (volunteer) forces to help the government and people in the fight against coronavirus epidemic.

News ID: 449559

Date: 12 March 2020 - 11:06

RNA - More than 100,000 Basij and IRGC forces are serving people against coronavirus, General Sharif said.

He underlined the IRGC experiences during the eight years of Iraqi-imposed war against Iran as well as helping the Resistance Front in recent years to confront the chemical attacks by the enemies of the Islamic Ummah and using the experiences in Iran's fight with coronavirus.

"The IRGC's extensive system, including personnel and specialized capacities as well as stationary and field hospitals, care camps, medical centers, and relief and sanitary data-x-items and equipment available in the IRGC and Basij are available for the specific circumstances of the country in the fight against coronavirus,” General Sharif said.

He added that in addition to achieving a diagnostic kit in the field of disease diagnosis and treatment, researchers in the field of healthcare under the Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences (supervised by the IRGC) are studying around the clock to test safe medicines which the authorities have reported promising progress in this area.

The Iranian health ministry announced on Wednesday that the number of people infected with COVID-19 virus has grown to 9,000, while deaths have increased to 354.

“Based on laboratory results, 958 new patients infected with COVID-19 have been identified in the country since Tuesday noon and the number of infected people has increased to 9,000 cases,” Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in his daily report on Wednesday.

He expressed regret that 63 corona-virus patients have passed away in the past 24 hours, and raised the number of deaths to 354.

Jahanpour, meantime, said that 2,959 patients infected with COVID-19 virus have also recovered so far.

More than 119,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the world with over 4,300 deaths so far, the vast majority of them in China where the virus originated late last year.

The coronavirus is spreading in the Middle East, Europe, US and other parts of the world, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.

Authorities across the United States reported over 1,000 cases of coronavirus and 31 deaths as of Tuesday.

More than 60 million people in Italy have been placed under lockdown after the government extended emergency measures across the entire country in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Italy is struggling to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of Covid-19, which has claimed 631 lives and infected over 10,000 people.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and universities have been extended for the next two weeks.

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.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced last week 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 Fars News Agency, Namaki said that the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached 22, and will increase to 40 soon.

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.

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