TEHRAN, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The total tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Iran, one of the most populous countries in West Asia, crossed the threshold of 1 million on Thursday, no more than 10 months after the first cases were reported in the country on Feb. 19.
Unlike most of the countries hit by the global pandemic, however, Iran has also been struggling against the unilateral U.S. embargoes that have created great obstacles in the country's efforts to fight the deadly virus.
For instance, during the first weeks of the outbreak, Tehran was left in a quandary over whether to limit air traffic to and from the outside world, since Washington's policy of "maximum pressure" means the Western Asian country may not be able to afford the loss of its relative position as an air hub between Asia and Europe.
Later on, Iranian authorities slammed Washington for blocking the allocation of a 5-billion-U.S.-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund and curtailing ordinary payment channels between Iranian banks and the world.
"The United States prevents us even from using our own money that we have in other countries to produce vaccines," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday in an online 2020 session of the Mediterranean Dialogues.
The lack of access to both payment channels and its own financial resources abroad has made it difficult for Iran to import any goods, including the emergency medical equipment such as ventilators and testing kits, for its 82 million inhabitants.
Until the beginning of September, about 25,000 coronavirus tests were carried out daily in the country, according to the daily briefings of the Iranian Ministry of Health. In the week from Sept. 13 to Sept. 19, there were a 43-percent increase in the number of deaths and a 33-percent increase in the number of infections.
Only after that has a gradual increase been seen in the daily tests to roughly 44,000 at the present time.
On its March-April report, the Iranian Parliament's Social Studies department warned of a predictable "new form of increase in the class divide" that may lead to "social conflicts" and, by itself, to an "aggravation of the critical health situation."
"In this way, the elderly and the weaker will be eliminated physically and socially, and the poor and the lower classes will face the serious challenge of survival," the report noted. Enditem
