- Saeed Namaki, regime’s Health Minister: Coronavirus becomes stronger and more pathogenic, and if we have another outbreak, we will have challenging days ahead. (Iran online, December 16, 2020)
- Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Nursing Organization: Why have we had this many deaths among the nursing community and medical staff, and no serious action has been taken? (Hamshahri daily, December 16, 2020)
- Beheshti University of Medical Sciences: The Antibody tests available in the country are not for COVID-19 antibody tests and are unreliable. (Tasnim news agency, December 15, 2020)
- Alireza Zali, head of the National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce (NCCT) in Tehran: “I ask the president, the parliament, the Central Bank, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc., to do their best to distribute the vaccine approved by the Ministry of Health to different people in the shortest possible time. (ISNA news agency, December 16, 2020)
- Nader Tavakoli, vice-chair of NCCT in Tehran: The COVID-19 statistics have been stable for several days, and we do not have a reduction in figures; We have a fragile condition, and if it is not controlled, we will experience a worse trend. (ISNA news agency, December 16, 2020)
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on December 16, 2020, that the Coronavirus death toll in 470 cities had exceeded 186,200. The number of victims in Tehran is 45,771, Isfahan 10,920, Khuzestan 9,625, Qom 7,325, East Azerbaijan 7,292, West Azerbaijan 7,018, Mazandaran 7,012, Gilan 6,606, Fars 5,592, Alborz 4,925, Hamedan 4,505, Central Province 3,828, Yazd 3,292, Kurdistan 3,216, Qazvin 1,922, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad 1,319.
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
December 16, 2020
