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Review
. 2020 Dec 21;17(24):9593.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17249593.

Initial COVID-19 Outbreak: An Epidemiological and Socioeconomic Case Review of Iran

Elise Blandenier  1 , Zahra Habibi  1 , Timokleia Kousi  1 , Paolo Sestito  1 , Antoine Flahault  2 , Liudmila Rozanova  3
Affiliations
Review

Initial COVID-19 Outbreak: An Epidemiological and Socioeconomic Case Review of Iran

Elise Blandenier et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected millions of people worldwide. It brought about the implementation of various measures and restrictions at a global level. Iran has been one of the countries with the highest rates of COVID-19 cases. This study reviews the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in Iran and examines the mitigation strategies adopted by the country. Moreover, it reports the socioeconomic challenges faced by the authorities during the efforts to contain the virus. A transdisciplinary literature review was carried out and a political measures timeline was constructed. A broad overview of the initial phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran is presented, starting from the first confirmed case on 19 February 2020 until April 2020. The results of this epidemiological and socioeconomic case review of Iran suggests that the political measures undertaken by the Republic of Iran contributed to the decrease of the prevalence of COVID-19. However, due to the existing financial bottleneck, Iran has faced limited health system resources. Therefore, the response was not sufficient to restrict the spread and the efficient handling of the virus in the long-term.

Keywords: COVID-19; Iran; crisis management; economy; mathematical modeling; pandemic; political trust crisis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Daily number of deaths and daily number of cases since the beginning of the outbreak in Iran. Reproduced from [4], Copyright 2020, Raoofi, A.; Takian, A.; Sari, A.A.; Olyaeemanesh, A.; Haghighi, H.; Aarabi, M.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Case distribution by provinces, 9 March 2020. Reproduced from [6], Copyright 2020, Arab-Mazar, Z.; Sah, R.; Rabaan, A.A.; Dhama, K.; Rodriguez-Morales, A.J.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Epidemiological Curve 1 [7].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Epidemiological Curve 2 [7].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Epidemiological Curve 3 [7].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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