Italian soldiers wearing masks in Duomo Square in Milan. Photo:Getty Images
MARCH 7th 2020
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
Dramatic Spike In Coronavirus Cases: Iran and Italy See More Casualties
The coronavirus, known now as COVID-19, has made its way well around the world, infecting people of many far-travelling nationalities from Americans, to Brits, and finding itself in many European countries. The most heavily influenced European country, Italy, however, is seeing the worst of the virus.
The total number of cases in Italy have risen drastically on Saturday, growing to just under 5,900. This comes at a boom, jumping up harshly from 4,600 cases. The country’s also seen a massive increase in its death toll, with officials having reported over 50 deaths over the course of only 24 hours – which has pushed the total death toll in Italy concerning the virus to over 200. With this too, the total number of deaths worldwide have nearly reach 3,500.
Italy remains the most highly infected country in all of Europe, leading to the country announcing that it’s had to reemploy retired doctors to try and help curb the outbreak and handle the infected persons in mass quarantine.
Nicola Zingaretti, politician and leader of Italy's centre-left Democratic Party said on Saturday through a post on Facebook that he too had been tested positive for the virus, and that as a result he would have to be placing himself into home quarantine. "I am fine but I will have to stay home for the next few days," he said.
There have also been details shared of the development of the virus’ infection rate steeply rising in Iran, with the country now reporting at least 6,000 cases, and with it, 145 deaths. In total, this has brought the number of cases reported worldwide to 100,000, the majority of them localised in China’s Hubei province where the virus is thought to have originated and is centralised, according to officials.
It was reported that 21 of the deaths in Iran all occurred in only a day. Iran is known to have one of the best healthcare systems in all of the Middle East, yet even so, it seems to be struggling greatly with the outbreak. Among the dead is the country’s senior advisor to the supreme leader, and the infected persons so far include the deputy health minister, among other government officials consisting of 23 members of Parliament, and one of Iran’s vice presidents.
After the initial outbreaks and severe increase in the infectivity of the virus, Iran hadn’t shown any signs of preparedness for the virus’ initial appearance. Many are criticising the country’s authorities over this, claiming they didn’t take the threat seriously enough.
In a news conference that’d been televised on Saturday, one of Iran’s health ministry’s spokesmen Kianoush Jahanpour discussed the matter of the virus, stating that 1,669 people who’d suffered the disease in the country had made recoveries so far. “More than 16,000 people are currently hospitalized as suspect cases,” he said.
Fatemeh Rahbar, 55, is the second and most recent Iranian lawmaker to have died as a cause of the virus, having passed on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported.
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily
