News / Politics

Iran parl. body rejects fake coronavirus tolls reported by foreign media

Thursday, 16 April 2020 11:00 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 16 April 2020 11:02 AM ]

A medic gestures at the fairground of Iranmall, Tehran's largest shopping mall, after it converted into a hospital for coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, in Tehran, Iran on March 30, 2020. (Photo by AFP)

The Iranian Parliament (Majlis)’s Research Center has rejected the tolls from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran that certain foreign media outlets have reported, referencing a report by the body.

“The figures offered by foreign media about coronavirus cases and casualties [in Iran] are wrong and invalid, and are in no way confirmed by the Parliament’s Research Center,” said Mohammad Qassemi, the caretaker director of the center, on Thursday.

He said foreign media outlets had distorted the figures presented in a recent report by the center.

The center’s data, he said, in no way challenged the figures released by Iran’s National Headquarters to Fight the Coronavirus, and merely examined the sensitivity of the Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) diagnostic test for the coronavirus, which is the case in all the countries dealing with the virus.

The center’s report explicitly states that the National Headquarters to Fight the Coronavirus is the sole reference for the publication of coronavirus-related statistics and that the main criterion is the people whose test results have come out a definitive positive, Qassemi said.

Several foreign media outlets had misreported the figures presented by the center. In one report, the Associated Press had claimed that the center had said the number of coronavirus deaths in Iran may be as high as 8,500 and the country may have as many as 760,000 cases.

Foreign outlets have been reporting fake news about Iran since the epidemic started in the country.

In an article on March 12, The Washington Post wrongly claimed that Iran was digging “vast” burial pits at the Behesht-e Masoumeh Cemetery in Qom for coronavirus victims.

Washington Post hypes fake news on coronavirus ‘burial pits’ in Iran

The Washington Post has turned to publishing fake news about Iran’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, claiming that Iran has dug mass "burial pits" for victims of the disease.

Iran has so far reported 77,995 infections and 4,869 deaths. Over 52,229 people have also recovered, according to the latest updates released by the Iranian Health Ministry on Thursday.

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