Tehran, Oct. 20, (dpa/GNA) – The coronavirus-related death toll in Iran is more than twice as high as official figures indicate.
This is reported by Isna News Agency on Tuesday, citing a crisis management team seeking to stem contagion.
Health expert Massud Mardani was cited as saying that the daily death toll given by the Health Ministry, which stood at 322 on Tuesday, would have to be multiplied by 2.5 in order to get the real number of deaths.
Other health experts in Iran share Mardani’s assessment that the country’s actual coronavirus caseload is significantly higher than official figures due to limited testing capacity.
Experts are demanding an immediate lockdown in large cities – particularly in Tehran, a major hotspot – in order to prevent the health care system from becoming too strained.
The 337 daily death tolls announced on Monday, October 19 was a record in the country since the onset of the pandemic.
On Tuesday, 322 deaths were reported, taking the overall death toll from Covid-19 to more than 31,000.
The total number of people who have contracted the virus stood at 540,000.
GNA