Financial Tribune: The sharp rise in the capital’s infection rate has compelled the National Coronavirus Taskforce to order a provincewide shutdown of universities, schools, mosques, language institutes and beauty parlors, among other places
Lockdown disciplines returned to the province of Tehran for a one-week period to tackle the spread of the coronavirus infection in the epicenter of the outbreak in Iran. The sharp rise in the capital’s infections has compelled the National Coronavirus Taskforce to order a provincewide shutdown of universities, schools, mosques, language institutes and beauty parlors, among other places, deputy governor general, Hamidreza Goudarzi, was quoted as saying by ISNA. Adopting recommendations by Alireza Zali, the head of Tehran’s coronavirus taskforce, the national authority on all matters concerning the epidemic also shut down ceremony halls, gyms and swimming pools, and banned all public gatherings, including this weekend’s Friday prayers.
Latest Health Ministry statistics indicate that adherence to safety guidelines in the province of Tehran has dropped to 46%, less than the country’s average. Currently, 4,605 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized across the key province. Zali noted that without serious intervention, infections will rise by three to five times and deaths by 1.5-3%. Data compiled by the Health Ministry show an uptrend in infections across Tehran for over a month, which will inevitably increase the death rate. Over 3,523 were diagnosed with Covid-19 within 24 hours on Saturday, 40% of whom were admitted to hospital. The newly-identified cases took the national total to 468,119,” Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman of Health Ministry, was quoted as saying by ISNA. The daily count of deaths dropped to 170 on Saturday, down by eight a day earlier, bringing the toll to 26,746, she added.