(Reuters) – Iranian health officials on Sunday sought to downplay the president’s estimate that some 25 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, saying it was based on serological blood tests that measure exposure to the disease and that it was not You can trust them to show the current state of the disease.
FILE PHOTO: An Iranian man and his son wearing a protective mask walk on a street after the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2020. WANA (News Agency of Western Asia) via REUTERS
The 25 million figure presented by Rouhani on Saturday is almost a third of the population and vastly higher than the official number of COVID-19 cases. The official number of cases rose to 273,788 on Sunday, with 14,188 deaths, said Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.
A statement from the Health Ministry released by the Iranian media said the figure given by the president was based on numbers produced by a deputy in the ministry.
“Serological testing cannot be relied upon to diagnose the current state of the disease,” the statement said.
Serological tests determine whether a person has been exposed to a disease by showing their antibody response. In the coronavirus pandemic, countries have used them to examine population samples and estimate overall infection rates, whether or not people have had severe, mild, or no symptoms of COVID-19.
“Serological tests only show whether people have been exposed to the virus in the past,” said Mostafa Qanei, head of the government’s scientific committee of the coronavirus task force, according to the state website IRINN. Throat and nose PCR tests are necessary to diagnose COVID-19, he added.
Iran has been the hardest hit by the pandemic in the Middle East, with infections and deaths on the rise since restrictions were eased, starting in mid-April. Still, the number given by Rouhani caught many Iranians by surprise.
Turkey suspended flights to Iran due to concerns about the coronavirus, a spokesman for Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, Reza Jafarzadeh, said on Sunday, according to the official IRNA news agency.
The deputy of the Parliament, Alireza Salimi, asked the government to present a single official figure for coronavirus cases.
Announcing the 25 million estimate on Saturday, Rouhani did not say what the figure was based on, but added that an additional 30-35 million may be at risk.
An official with the coronavirus task force said Saturday that the 25 million were “mildly affected patients who … did not need to seek medical advice.”
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