On 17 March, WHO regional emergency director Rick Brennan said the number of cases reported in Iran could represent only about 20% of the real numbers because testing was restricted to severe cases, as is the case even in some wealthy European countries. He added, "We’ve said the weakest link in their chain is the data. They are rapidly increasing their ability to test and so the numbers will go up... There's a great commitment and they are taking it seriously from the highest level of government." Masoud Pezeshkian, the First Deputy of the Parliament of Iran, claimed on 3 March that the figures reported by the MOHME are "not real". Member of parliament for Qom Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani claimed on 24 February that COVID-19 had arrived in Qom three weeks prior, in early February, that the first death had occurred on 13 February but was not announced by officials, and that the true number of COVID-19 deaths in Qom was 50. Deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi denied giving false figures. As two MOHME officials, a former ministry official and three doctors claimed, Iranian authorities knew of an increasing number of patients with lung infections and high fever in Qom in early January but they did not announce the news until weeks later because of the upcoming elections. On 28 February, BBC reported 210 deaths had occurred in Iran, citing "sources in the country's health system", while the official number for the day was 34. MOHME spokesman Jahanpur rejected the BBC report in a tweet. On 12 March, "The Economist" wrote that "[s]ome in the government think the actual number of cases is closer to 100,000", while the official count of infected people was about 9,000. On 22 March, Radio Farda reported that, "based on the statements made by local officials in various parts of Iran", around 2,372 have died, while the official death toll reached 1,556. Radio Farda also said on 21 March that since Iran's government statistics only included those who had tested positive for the disease, due to a lack of test kits, deaths may be registered as respiratory complications or influenza. They put their estimate of the number of infections at 16,000 in Tehran alone when the official figure given was 20,610 for the whole country on that date. On 12 March, "The Washington Post" published satellite images and analysis provided by Maxar Technologies, saying that vast burial pits were being excavated near Qom, said to be used to accommodate the victims in the city.