A member of the city council in the Iranian capital Tehran has claimed that at least 13,000 people have died there between February and March. “In the past two months, 13,000 people have been buried in Tehran,” Mohammad Javad Haghshenas told the daily reformist newspaper Aftab-e Yazd yesterday. However, Haghshenas stopped short of disclosing how many of these deaths were related to COVID-19 in the worst-affected country in the region. According to Al-Arabiya, he has suggested the number of deaths due to the virus can be obtained from comparing the number of fatalities this year and the same period in the capital last year. Earlier in the month it was revealed that a parliamentary report suggested that the death toll was nearly double the officially figures released by the government. Additionally, a joint poll conducted by the Tehran Municipality’s Deputy for Social and Cultural Affairs and the Iranian Student Opinion Polling Centre (ISPA) found that 48 per cent of people do not trust the official death toll. Iran’s PressTV however reported that the Health Ministry announced on Saturday that the country is witnessing a downward trend in both infections and deaths. “There is a declining trend in corona disease in most provinces and this has been the result of effective actions by the people and the government,” said Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, who announced a fall in cases by 50 per cent and a 70 per cent drop in coronavirus-related deaths across the country. Current figures state there are 94,640 cases of the disease, with 983 new ones reported in the last 24 hours. There were 71 new reported deaths bringing the death toll to 6,028.