Iranian healthcare system against COVID-19

Viruses are one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.1 The Wuhan Municipal Health Commission reported an unknown pathogen is a cause of the outbreak of viral pneumonia that produced an influenza-like syndrome in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China in December 2019.2 This pathogen was an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus, a coronavirus that was named 2019-nCov initially then severe acute respiratory syndromerelated coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), leading to the disease called COVID-19. The consequences of COVID-19 infection patients can be lethal, particularly in patients with underlying diseases, such as cardiac failure, hypertension, diabetes, asthma, and chronic lung disease.4 At the moment, the reproduction number of 2019-nCoV is thought to be 2.68 (95%CI 2.47-2.86), while the reproduction number of seasonal influenza is 1.28.5 So COVID-19 is more contagious than seasonal influenza. According to the steady trend in the number of COVID-19 patients, as well as the good triage of patients in hospitals and the quarantine at the home of patients with mild symptoms, hospital beds still are not filled.