By Jubin Katiraie
Twelve medical staff in Iran have now died from the coronavirus (Covid-19) following the death of a doctor in Rasht on Saturday.
The state-run IRNA news agency reported on Saturday night that Mohammad Mohammadi, an experienced physician in Rasht, died after being infected with coronavirus, which came just hours after Dr. Mohammad Ali Rabii died from the coronavirus in Shaft, Gilan Province,
Previously, six doctors and four nurses had died. Those who have been identified, include:
- Dr. Farid Nirouii from Babol
- Dr. Mostafa Samadi from Babol
- Dr. Siamak Diosheli from Bandar Anzali Hospital
- Dr. Ardeshir Shiran from Isfahan
- Dr. Hamid Lotfi from Someh-Sara
- Dr. Reza Kouchekinia, the director of Medical Center No. 1 in Astaneh
- Ali Sheikh Moradi
- Narges Khanalizadeh
- Ramin Azizifar
There is numerous more medical staff who are infected because they have not had access to adequate preventive medical equipment, i.e. masks, at any point during the outbreak and their immune systems have been run down by heavily increased work pressure and stress.
Mehdi Hosseini-Nejad, the head of the Industry and Mines Organization in the Province of Kerman, said that 41% of coronavirus cases there were the medical staff who did not have access to “face masks, alcohol, and gloves”.
While the general director of the Nursing Organization told IRNA on Monday that “shortages of face masks, gloves, and protective garb” is a “cause of concern” and puts medical staff at risk.
Of course, it is the medical personnel, who are risking their lives to treat patients, who originally brought this up. There are numerous videos on social media of medical staff lamenting the lack of appropriate equipment.
One nurse in Razi Hospital, Rasht, was filmed saying that medical staff are underequipped and lack the appropriate levels of standard protection suits, disinfectants, alcohol, and medicine.
While several staff members at Amini Hospital in Langrood, Gilan Province, posted on their Instagram profiles to ask for “urgent help”.
They wrote: “If the medical staff continue to serve without adequate and standard protective equipment, soon, no one would certainly remain to take care of the patients in Amini Hospital of Langrood and all the nurses would contract the virus.”
Maryam Rajavi, the President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), hailed the medical staff and extended her condolences to the families of the victims. She said the doctors and nurses were a source of “honor and pride” for the Iranian people.
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