TEHRAN – The fifth phase of Martyr Soleimani plan began on Monday aiming to curb the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Some 35,000 volunteer forces have taken part in the national plan, IRIB reported.

In December 2020, the first phase of the plan named after martyr Qassem Soleimani started to help contain the disease.

Aimed at cutting the transmission chain of the disease, the plan is being implemented in cooperation with the Ministry of Health, Basij, and the Red Crescent Society, through which volunteer forces provide information, testing, diagnosis, referral of suspects to health centers, and offer services by visiting people’s homes.

One of the most valuable measures of the plan was to prevent the death of 400 people across the country, and today it continues focusing on vaccination with the opening of centers within the next two weeks, Hassan Hassanzadeh, Commander of Mohammad Rasulullah Corps said.

It is planned to prepare and educate the people to follow the health protocols, and there are also diagnostic treatment cards and home quarantine among the programs, he added.

Hassanzadeh went on to note that the Basij is directly involved in vaccination in 40 centers, and Mohammad Rasulullah Corps is operating in 30 vaccination centers.

Volunteer efforts in light of pandemic

In the fight against coronavirus, the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), Basij along with the Ministry of Health and other responsible organizations, has undertaken important activities, from rapid diagnosis and screening to providing medical services and shelter, but the most important activity of this population has been informing the public about healthcare and treatment.

Some 35,000 volunteer forces provide information, testing, and diagnosis.Since the onset of the outbreak, more than 980 voluntary plans and projects to contain the epidemic has been implemented across the country, with 72,694 volunteers participating in the implementation of these projects, Karim Hemmati, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, said in May 2020.

The first phase of public donations was allocated to provide health and essential items for the deprived and unprivileged areas, and besides, 500,000 patients suffering special diseases were provided with essential health items, he stated.

Through the second phase, the IRCS, to provide medical items for COVID-19 patients in hospitals, purchased 100 ventilators worth approximately 160 billion rials (around $3.8 million), 52 devices have been provided with the help of charities and public participation, he added.

With the efforts of the Basij, the Soleimani plan decreased the transmission chain of the disease by 50 percent.

Some 22,530 monitoring teams have been formed within the framework of the plan since December 2020 with 103,000 members, of which more than 270,000 are in contact to identify COVID-19 patients, said Jafar Sadeq-Tabrizi, head of the Network Management Center of the Ministry of Health.

Some 6,730 home care teams have been formed in the country with the participation of 18,000 forces, who have taken care of 41,000 people at home, and rapid result tests have been performed on 7,500 suspects, he explained.

Since December 2020, with the participation of 61,000 people, more than 10,000 monitoring teams have been formed. About 782,000 visits and monitoring of various places and centers have been formed.

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