Medical Charity MSF Says Iran Coronavirus Aid Is ‘On Hold’

(Bloomberg) --

The international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said it’s “currently put on hold” its plans to set up a makeshift hospital in Iran to help critically ill coronavirus patients.

The charity, also known as Doctors Without Borders, said in an email that it was awaiting “official confirmations about the next steps.” It didn’t explain why its plans for an emergency team to staff a 50-bed inflatable treatment unit in the central province of Esfahan have stalled.

“We currently already have tens of field hospitals that we’ve built that haven’t yet been used, we have empty beds and spare capacity, so at this stage we don’t need this help,” Alireza Vahabzadeh, a Health Ministry adviser, said in a phone call. “It doesn’t include anything we don’t have or cannot access due to sanctions.”

On Monday, the Iranian embassy in France tweeted that a “second shipment of MSF aid has left Bordeaux for Tehran today”. The charity announced their plans on Sunday and said in a press release that it would work with local medical staff and “in close coordination with the Iranian health authorities.”

Iran is experiencing the worst coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East, at a time when it is struggling to cope with bruising U.S. sanctions. So far 1,934 people have died and almost 25,000 people have tested positive, according to the latest Health Ministry figures.

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