Bitter blame game in Iran amid coronavirus ‘explosion’ Iranian authorities are pointing the finger of blame at one another over the chaotic management of the recent skyrocketing COVID-19 infection rates. An Iranian woman, wearing a protective mask amid the COVID-19 pandemic, sits in a bus in the capital, Tehran, on Dec. 30, 2020. April 8, 2021 Furious calls are growing louder in Iran against the pandemic mismanagement after the country’s infection rates tripled in a matter of two days. According to official statistics April 8, all provincial capitals and over three-fourths of the country were mapped as red zones. The number of daily cases hit a record new high of 22,586, pushing beyond 2 million the entire population of those infected since the outbreak of the pandemic.