Iran on Thursday said that it had asked for an emergency US$5 billion loan from the IMF to help fight the spread of COVID-19, which has infected more than 10,000 people and killed hundreds in the country.
Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour announced in a now-daily televised news conference that 75 people had died in the prior 24 hours and more than 1,000 new cases of infection had been confirmed, pushing the death toll to 429 and confirmed cases to 10,075.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday on Twitter urged the IMF to “stand on right side of history & act responsibly” by releasing the funds through its Rapid Financial Instrument.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Central Bank of the Islamic Republic Governor Abdolnasser Hemmati said that he last week made the request for US$5 billion in a letter to IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
The IMF has said that it stands ready to support countries battling the virus.
Zarif has urged countries to assist Iran by providing N95 respirators, ventilators, surgical gowns, testing kits and other medical supplies. The WHO sent a shipment of medical gear, including 1,100 virus testing kits that can test more than 105,000 people.
Iran’s economy has been battered by US sanctions, which have choked Tehran’s ability to sell its oil.
The outbreak has compounded its economic woes, with all of Iran’s neighbors closing their borders to Iranians and multiple nations cutting travel links with Iran, including shipping in some cases, which is affecting imports, as well.
Multiple top officials in Iran — from the senior vice president to Cabinet ministers and members of parliament to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, health workers and health ministry officials — have contracted the virus. Some of those officials have died.
There are concerns that the number of infections across Iran is much higher than the confirmed cases reported by the government, which is struggling to contain or manage its spread. The rising casualty figures each day in Iran suggest that the fight against the new coronavirus is far from over.
Outside of Iran, only Iraq, Egypt and Lebanon have recorded deaths from the virus in the Middle East. Iran has one of the world’s worst death tolls outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak.
Confirmed cases in Israel on Thursday rose to 100, alongside 31 cases in the West Bank and none reported in the Gaza Strip.
A third Lebanese man died from the coronavirus, state-run media reported.
Qatar late on Wednesday reported a massive jump in coronavirus cases, with 262 infected. The more than 200 new cases had been found in quarantine.
In Bahrain, confirmed cases also rose by nearly 70 percent to 189, after about 77 new cases were confirmed on a flight of Bahrainis returning from Iran.
Kuwait on Thursday closed all workplaces and nonessential business for two weeks, including restaurants, cafes and health clubs. Schools and universities have already been suspended.
Egypt late on Wednesday reported seven more cases, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 67.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS