TEHRAN: No staff members, either Chinese or Iranian, in Chinese-invested companies in Iran have been infected with the coronavirus, as these companies adopted some of the epidemic prevention measures that have been proved effective in China, the Chinese Red Cross medical team in Iran told media.
Meanwhile, the daily testing ability for coronavirus in Iran has increased from 200 tests on February 29 when the medical team first arrived, to 6,000 tests as of Friday, and the figure is expected to further increase to more than 10,000 daily next week thanks to the joint efforts made by all parties in Iran as well as with China’s assistance.
The number of laboratories that have the capability to carry out nucleic acid testing has also risen from three to 30 as of Friday and is expected to expand to 50 next week, Ma Xuejun, a research fellow at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and an expert with the medical team in Iran, told.
The volunteer group of medical experts sent by the Red Cross Society of China comprises five experts who arrived in Tehran on February 29 as part of efforts to help Iran the worst-hit country fight against COVID-19.
However, a large gap in the country’s testing ability still exists as the situation in the country continues to deteriorate. Confirmed cases of coronavirus infections reached 12,729 on Saturday with the death toll from the virus rising to 611, according to an Iranian health ministry official, Reuters reported. But many people speculated that this figure might be just the tip of the iceberg and the actual infected cases could be much higher, given the country’s poor testing and treatment capabilities.
Ma said that the improvement in testing ability could help Iran determine the actual number of people who have become infected, which also help with the arrangements for will quarantine and treatment.
Medical experts said the reported number of infected cases is related to the country’s testing ability. According to Ma, although Iran has a good laboratory foundation, it does not have the ability to produce its own nucleic acid test kits for coronavirus. Currently, the test kits mainly come from donations from China and the WHO. China previously donated about 70,000 testing kits to the country. The WHO is also coordinating the next shipment of testing kits and other medical supplies to Iran, he said. Compared with other countries, Iran has a high number of high-level officials infected with coronavirus, including the country’s vice president. Zhou Xiaohang, leader of the medical team, told the Global Times on Friday that when the team first arrived, Iranian officials seldom wore masks when they had meetings with the team members. “But now, Iranian officials are beginning to wear masks when they have meetings with us, as well as at their own high-level meetings,” Zhou said. “Generally speaking, Iranian people’s awareness of the virus has improved significantly.”
– The Daily Mail-Global Times News exchange item
