Corona, Iran … 70% of the antivirus budget “disappeared”!

Iran’s Health Minister Saeed Namaki complained that he had received only a “small part” of the amount allocated to deal with the emerging coronavirus epidemic in the country.

The Iranian Ministry of Health was supposed to receive around 1.2 billion euros provided by the Iranian National Development Fund to support care efforts in the face of the pandemic that has killed around a quarter of a million people worldwide. until now.

Meanwhile, an official from the Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) said that “the hard currency of the National Development Fund is not available,” according to Radio Farda.

Previously, the Minister of Health indicated: “I was wondering why it is more important than fighting the Corona virus, the amount that we should receive from the Development Fund has been assigned.

Referring to the new wave of the Coronavirus in the fall, the delay in meeting the demands of the health sector and the decrease in supplies in the ministry’s warehouses, Namaki revealed that so far only 27 percent of the allocated budget has been received.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Fars News Agency quoted a senior official as replying that, “Due to the financial consequences of converting the euro into rials, the Central Bank of Iran has some reservations on this issue, and against granting hard currency to fight the new Corona virus, so hard currency is not available. in the frame”.

The allocation of one billion euros to combat the coronavirus dates back to April 6, when it was announced that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei had approved the government’s emergency request to withdraw the amount from the National Development Fund to combat the deadly virus.

Meanwhile, according to official statistics from the Ministry of Health, after reliving the days of mourning in Muharram and the opening of schools, the number of people infected by the Coronavirus and its victims in Iran increased significantly.

Now most provinces are on high alert and some, including Isfahan in central Iran, are on the brink of an unprecedented health crisis.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Iraj Haririchi, confirmed in a television program that only about 30 percent of the budget of one billion euros allocated to the Ministry of Health has been paid.

He also complained about the lack of funds to pay the salaries and bonuses of doctors and nurses.