Restrictions Return to Tehran Amid Rising Virus Infections

EghtesadOnline: Iran will reimpose some lockdown measures in its overcrowded capital Tehran to halt a new surge in Covid-19 cases, which has overwhelmed hospitals and pushed the daily death toll to a record high.

News ID: ۷۵۰۴۴۰

15 July 2020

The city of Tehran is set to be placed under quarantine measures for one week, Governor General Anourshirvan Mohseni Bandpey was quoted as saying by ISNA on Monday night.

“The closure of coffee shops, zoos, beauty parlors, cinemas, theaters, language institutes, swimming pools, gyms, mosques, wedding halls and libraries are among the measures,” Bandpey said.

The lockdown also includes any type of public gathering, including weddings, funerals and seminars.

The new order, issued by the National Coronavirus Taskforce, has not been executed yet, according to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, which maintained that, by Tuesday noon, it had not yet received the order to close down cultural centers.

It has been nearly two months since the government opened all businesses to revive its economy which move, according to Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, accounts for only 8% of the recent infections in most provinces.

“In most provinces, family gatherings are responsible for over 40% of transmissions, 51% due to close contact with an infected family member and only 8% in work environments,” he added.

According to the health official, one-fifth of daily deaths in Iran occurs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“About 1,050 lose their lives in Iran every day and more than 200 of the deaths involve Covid-19 patients,” he added.

Harirchi pointed out that the figures should be a wake-up call for Iranians.

Vehicle traffic in the city of Tehran has dropped by 20% compared to two weeks ago, a city official said, following the resurgence of the pandemic and a nationwide mandatory mask wearing order.

Ali Raeisi, another health official, said the one-week shutdown is a “start” and restrictions should be evaluated by the end of the period and extended, if necessary.

Virus Surge in 25 Provinces

For the first time since the outbreak began, 25 of the country’s 31 provinces are seeing high or alarming number of coronavirus transmissions, Iran’s Health Ministry announced on Tuesday.

The spokeswoman for the ministry, Sima Sadat Lari, said only six provinces across the nation are “white”, or have low transmission rates.

During a 24-hour period, 179 more died from the viral infection, Lari said, taking the death toll to 13,211.

She added, “Some 2,520 new confirmed coronavirus cases were detected by Tuesday noon, 1,820 of whom were hospitalized.” The fresh cases pushed the overall count to 262,173.

Nearly 3,400 are hospitalized in intensive care units under critical condition and 225,000 have so far recovered. To identify infected patients, Iran has administered 2.025 million tests over the past five months.

Global infections rose beyond 13.2 million on Tuesday and the tally of death reached 576,000.