Shelter: Iran’s race to build a life-saving COVID ward

 As one of Tehran’s oldest hospitals reaches capacity during the pandemic, the urgent construction of a new ward begins.

Javad is a civil engineer in charge of a large construction project – to build an extension to an old hospital in one of Tehran’s most impoverished areas.

As the coronavirus pandemic surges through Iran, death tolls soar and hospitals start to run out of capacity. To accommodate the growing number of COVID-19 patients, Javad is given the almost impossible task of preparing two floors of an unfinished building in just 20 days – work that would require three months under normal circumstances.