Image by Michal Jarmoluk from Pixabay
Over 600 people have been killed, and 3,000 rushed to the hospital in Iran due to their mistaken belief of drinking neat alcohol cures the coronavirus.
There have been hundreds of people and thousands more who have been poisoned in Iran after they drank high-concentration alcohol due to their belief that it would cure the deadly coronavirus.
Already, the death count reached 600 people. Also, there are about 3,000 people admitted in hospitals all over, said the Iranian judicial spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaili on Tuesday, Apr. 21.
He said in a press conference, "The numbers are very high and are beyond our expectations," and added, "Alcohol consumption is not a cure but can be lethal."
The government orders arresting people who are spreading false information about COVID-19 cure, suggesting to drink highly-concentrated alcohol to cure the coronavirus. The state will deal with them accordingly, says Esmaili to the state-run Tasnim News Agency.
"They must be held accountable for their criminal acts, for causing death and damage to citizens."
Iran is the country in the Middle East, which has the highest number of coronavirus cases, numbering at almost 63,000 confirmed cases as well as over nearly 4,000 deaths.
There are now several questions towards the country and how they downplayed the severity of the coronavirus pandemic in their country. Their initial data was largely off-base with reality.
Also, Iran's parliament convened on Tuesday for the very first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced its doors to close, temporarily. The country reports as well that there has been a drop in new infections of the coronavirus for the seventh straight day.
The parliament was two-thirds complete out of the 290 members as they gathered, noticeably absent in the meeting is the veteran politician Ali Larijani, who was tested positive for COVID-19 just last week.
The state television shot footage of the opening session showed some MP's huddling close to one another despite the guidelines on social distancing by WHO to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The parliament's agenda that time was to debate and ultimately block a bill that would call for total lockdown in the country for a month, as they said it would damage the economy even more so.
MP Shadmehr Kazemzadeh said to the news agency ISNA, 'This plan is against jobs and growing productivity. Who's going to pay for implementing it?'
However, Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, the person responsible for drafting the bill, said that Iran is "confused" on how to contain the coronavirus pandemic in their country.
He had this to say, "We must urgently make a decision, as history will judge us,"
Iran decided to close down all non-essential businesses and has imposed inter-city travel bans, while not going on lockdown in a bit to stop slightly stop the coronavirus pandemic.