Victims of the coronavirus exceed 64,800 in 342 Iranian cities

Maryam Rajavi: Hail to the protesting nurses in Mashhad, and all the physicians, nurses and medical staff who have risked their own lives to save the lives of patients.

The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran announced Friday afternoon, July 3, 2020, that the death toll due to the coronavirus infection has exceeded 64,800 in 342 cities across Iran.

Physicians, nurses, emergency personnel and ambulance drivers are at high risk of infection, and many have already lost their lives. They have been exhausted under work pressure, but the clerical regime does not spend the minimum to improve their situation.

In addition, the regime procrastinates payment of their salaries and their overtime dues. There are a large number of trained nurses who can be employed to reinforce Iran’s exhausted medical system, but the regime refrains from doing so. They employ nurses on 89-day contracts as daily rate workers, in order to avoid granting them insurance and unemployment fees.

Nurses in Mashhad held a gathering this week in protest of intolerable pressure, their dire economic conditions, and the regime’s failure to pay their salaries. The repressive State Security forces, however, attacked the protesters, hitting them with batons and shockers, and arresting a number of them.

Hail to the protesting nurses in Mashhad who were attacked by batons and shockers. Hail to all the physicians, nurses and medical staff who have been risking their own lives to save the lives of patients.

The clerical regime has plundered our nation for 4 decades, squandering the country’s wealth on nuclear and missile projects and on terrorism. It has destroyed all the country’s infrastructures. Despite the existence of selfless and proficient physicians and nurses, the regime has left our people defenseless in the face of the pandemic. The only way to end poverty, corruption, unemployment and disease, is overthrowing the clerical regime and establishing democracy and people’s sovereignty in Iran.