TEHRAN (Iran News) – With the contribution of the EU Humanitarian Aid, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) procured 1,000 ventilators to help Iran fight against the pandemic.
The ventilators will be delivered to more than 300 centers for the elderly covered by the Welfare Organization of Iran.
Some 800 devices have so far been provided and 200 will soon be delivered, which will be distributed in 13 provinces across the country.
Mohammad Nafrieh, deputy head of rehabilitation at the Welfare Organization said that there are now more than 1,000 nursing homes in the country, of which 350 are offering care only to the elderly.
The ventilators are distributed in elderly care centers, and those extra amounts among the centers with a larger elderly population, he added.
Two months after the first coronavirus case was identified in Iran, the Welfare Organization formed an infectious disease committee to take preventive measures, he said.
Due to preventive measures, the mortality rate in nursing homes of Iran was much lower than the global norm and even compared to the advanced countries. For example, the World Health Organization in the region has praised the practice of virtual education for children with disabilities, Nafrieh explained.
During the pandemic, nursing homes have given priority for vaccination, and almost 100 percent of people in nursing homes received vaccines so that the new cases and mortality rate were significantly reduced.
