FNA - A brief look at the British State-run BBC Channel’s performance since the coronavirus outbreak in Iran reveals that this media outlet has made every effort to cast doubt on the country’s statistics in a bid to push forward Iranophobia and tarnish the image of religion.

Since two days ago, BBC Persian has reinvigorated campaign to cast doubt on the figures announced by Iran on the number of the coronavirus patients and dead. But the British agency didn’t give any valid and concrete information or document to substantiate its claims.


The questions and ambiguities raised by the BBC are not specific to Iran but the whole world states and Iranian health ministry officials have time and against answered all these points. This time the BBC has claimed that the rate of coronavirus deaths are triple the numbers stated by the Iranian health ministry, based on "an anonymous source" whose authenticity may not be verified.


The only document presented by the British media is a vague table of numbers whose contents may not be verified. The BBC Persian has not even approved of the details of the table, but raised its old claims about mortality rates in Iran only by relying the numbers carried in the table.


The British media claims that it has found access to a list of individuals who have died with "clinical symptoms similar to coronavirus", an issue pertinent to the figures presented by all the world states, specially considering that flu and cronavirus clinical symptoms are very similar and hence, making coronavirus test as the only standard criteria to declare an infection case. BBC Persian even acknowledges this very fact, but without presenting any other proof or document claims that all similar deaths should be considered as a cronavirus test, when dealing with the cases in Iran.


Iran’s Health Ministry officials have said since the identification of the first COID-19 patient in the country that the statistical figures of the ministry are based on definite diagnostic criteria. In other words, since it is not possible to conduct virus tests on all people to identify all infected cases, if some people pass away with symptoms similar to coronavirus, while they have not been tested, they are not included among coronavirus mortality rate, a criteria-based standard method globally recognized and practiced by other world countries.


The ministry continued that this is the standard method carried out by all countries that provide coronavirus figures, adding that the method is approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).


BBC Persian that is totally blind to British media claims that the numbers of infection and death cases in Britain are twice or three times more than the numbers declared by official London is known to be a propaganda instrument accuse Iran of a cover-up in every aspect since its establishment over decade ago.


To get more information on the record of BBC Persian's news propaganda on Iran’s coronavirus performance, you can go to this link.


The Iranian health ministry announced on Sunday that 2,685 new cases of COVID-19 virus infection have been identified in the country during the past 24 hours, noting that 17,190 patients have passed away so far.


“2,685 new patients infected with COVID-19 have been identified in the country during the past 24 hours and 1,423 patients have been hospitalized,” Iranian Health Ministry Spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on Sunday, and added, “The total number of the COVID-19 patients reached 309,437.”


“Unfortunately, 208 patients have passed away in the past 24 hours, increasing the number of the dead to 17,190, and 4,089 patients are in critical conditions,” she added.


Sadat Lari expressed pleasure that 268,102 cases infected with coronavirus have recovered or been discharged from hospitals.


The ministry’s spokeswoman also noted that 2,508,418 coronavirus tests have been conducted across the country.


She warned that 3 provinces are still in read condition or status of alert.


President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday lauded all Iranians for observing coronavirus-related instructions set by the health ministry, and noted that obligatory protocols will persist until discovering the vaccine.


Everybody should follow the instructions announced by the National Anti-Coronavirus Campaign Headquarters so that we overcome the virus and the related vaccine is made, Rouhani noted.


Those provinces which had already been in red conditions passed the coronavirus peak today, President Rouhani said.


He appreciated the nation for cooperating with the health officials in fighting the COVID-19.


Rouhani said in June that over 1,000 medical centers in the country have received necessary equipment to conduct tests on people suspected of infection to coronavirus, and added that Iran ranks first in the Muslim world in scientific achievements.


"Based on a report [by the health ministry], 1,200 centers across the country are ready to take samples and tests from people and 17,500 nursing and health homes are also prepared to provide hygiene and treatment services to people," Rouhani said, addressing a meeting of the national coronavirus campaign headquarters in Tehran.


Also, earlier this month, he said that the country will increase the number of its hospital beds to 8,000 by the end of the current Iranian year (March 19).


"We will add 8,000 hospital beds by the yearend," Rouhani said.


He added that 1,500 hospital beds for special cases have also been added to the capacity of the country's medical system since the outbreak of coronavirus in the country, noting that 2 drug production lines are also added every month to the country's pharmaceutical capacity.


The coronavirus COVID-19 is affecting approximately all countries and territories around the world. The virus was first reported in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. It has so far killed over 689,200 people and infected more than 18 million others globally.


The Iranian foreign ministry declared that despite Washington’s claims of cooperation to transfer drugs to Iran via the new Swiss-launched payment mechanism, the US is troubling the process amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country.


Although US claims that medicines and medical equipment are not under sanctions, they have practically blocked the transfer of Iran’s financial resources in other countries into the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement (SHTA), former Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi said.


As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and most universities have been extended until further notice.