Iran Is Among The Countries Worst Hit by the coronavirus pandemic. As of March 19, the country reported 1,248 deaths and 18,407 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Iran currently has the third-highest recorded infection rate after China and Italy, closely followed by Spain with 18,077 confirmed cases and 833 deaths. Unlike in most of the other 160 countries, the coronavirus spike in Iran has hit top levels of the government. Among those who tested positive for the virus are Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar and Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi. Masoumeh Ebtekar is President Hassan Rouhani’s deputy for women’s affairs and the highest-ranking woman in the government. More than nine other top officials, including members of parliament, senior clerics and military officers, have succumbed to the epidemic.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was forced to issue an edict in the second week of March prohibiting his countrymen from undertaking unnecessary travel. He warned that more than a million Iranians were at risk from the virus. In the third week of March, the government ordered temporary release of 85,000 prisoners in order to curtail spread of the virus in prisons. To mark the Persian New Year, Nowruz, on March 20, Khamenei pardoned 10,000 prisoners, many of them political detainees. But the government found it difficult to keep people from travelling and crowds from visiting the bazaars in view of Nowruz.
However, medical experts believe that many more Iranian lives could have been saved if easy access to life-saving drugs and good hospital care had been available. The draconian sanctions imposed on the country by the United States have severely hampered the government’s ability to tackle the epidemic effectively.
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How Not To Handle An Epidemic
The lockdowns were meant to buy time to put in place appropriate health measures and contain the coronavirus’ spread, but they have failed to achieve the objective and heaped immense misery on the marginalised sections of society. India is still in the exponential phase of the COVID-19 infection and community transmission is a reality that the government refuses to accept.
Tragedy on foot
As the COVID-19-induced lockdown cuts the ground beneath their feet in Tamil Nadu, thousands of migrant workers are trudging along the highway to the relative safety of their upcountry homes.
Sarpanchs as game changers
Odisha manages to keep COVID-19 well under control because of the strong participation of panchayati raj institutions and the community at the grass-roots level under the leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Scapegoating China
As the COVID-19 death rate spikes and the economy tanks in the United States, Donald Trump and his advisers target China and the World Health Organisation with an eye to winning the forthcoming presidential election.
New worries
Kerala’s measured approach to the pandemic and lockdown has yielded results. But it still has to grapple with their huge economic impact on its economy, which it feels the Centre’s special financial relief package does little to alleviate.
No love lost for labour
Taking advantage of the lockdown and the inability of workers to organise protests, many State governments introduce sweeping changes to labour laws to the detriment of workers on the pretext of reviving production and boosting the economy.
Capital's Malthusian moment
In a world that needs substantial reorienting of production and distribution, Indian capital is resorting to a militant form of moribund neoliberalism to overcome its current crisis. In this pursuit of profit, it is ready and willing to throw into mortal peril millions whom it adjudicates as not worth their means—an admixture of social Darwinism born of capital’s avarice and brutalism spawned by Hindutva. .
Understanding migration
When governments and their plans are found to be blatantly wanting in addressing reverse migration, exercises such as the Ekta Parishad’s survey of migrant workers throughout India can be useful to work out creative long-lasting solutions.
Waiting for Jabalpur moment
The Supreme Court’s role in ensuring executive accountability during the ongoing lockdown leaves much to be desired. Standing in shining contrast is the record of some High Courts.
An empty package
The Modi regime, which has been unable to control the COVID-19 infection, restore economic activity and provide relief to millions exposed to starvation, trains its sights on Indian democracy, making use of the panic generated by fear and a lockdown that forecloses paths of resistance.
