Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his citizens they should be cautious but not afraid of the coronavirus, which has killed thousands in his country.
Rouhani made the remarks Tuesday as Iran begins to ease certain restrictions. The nation has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, with researchers and opposition groups claiming there have been far more deaths than the regime has reported.
“Excessive fear, excessive anxiety, excessive worrying is worse than this corona itself and this virus and can really break up people’s lives and take away people’s comfort,” Rouhani said, according to Reuters. “But at the same time, we shouldn’t be careless, meaning there must not be excessive anxiety and worrying and there must be necessary caution.”
Officially, Iran has reported about 92,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and almost 5,900 deaths, but the numbers are heavily disputed. The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a leading dissident group, said it has tallied more than 36,200 deaths among the COVID-19 cases in Iran. The group has also released documents that it claims show a coordinated cover-up by the regime regarding the timing of when the virus first struck.
Iran said the first cases of the COVID-19 virus were discovered Feb. 19, but the documents appear to show that the regime was aware of potential coronavirus infections in January. The group said that one of the reasons the regime may not have recorded cases was to encourage turnout to the parliamentary elections held on Feb. 21.
The country’s leadership has faced challenges over the last six months after protests broke out across the country in November and in January, when the regime admitted to shooting down a Ukrainian commercial airliner, killing 176 people on board, after previously lying about its involvement.
