Spike in Iranian Grave Preparation Hints at Possible Coronavirus Cover-up

Iran has updated its official coronavirus figures, reporting on Friday an additional 1,000 cases over Thursday’s figures and 85 additional deaths, totaling 11,364 and 514, respectively, according to state television. It was one of the country’s largest single-day jumps to date. Yet critics are saying the Islamic Republic is either deliberately underreporting or perhaps lagging far behind the true caseload. Satellite images show accelerated grave-digging – and even the preparation of mass graves – in the holy city of Qom, where Iran’s spiraling epidemic apparently first broke out. The imagery, taken in late February and first published in The New York Times, indicates long, empty trenches alongside preparations for individual graves in a new section of the city’s Behesht Masoumeh cemetery. Just before the photos were taken, a local legislator complained that the 12 deaths reported at the time in the city were only a quarter of the true figure, a claim denied by authorities. On Thursday, Iran said that Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been infected.