Iran faces up to virus surge, changes stance

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran on Saturday shuttered businesses and curtailed travel between its major cities, including the capital of Tehran, as it grapples with the worst outbreak of the coronavirus in the Middle East.

Top Iranian officials initially downplayed the risks posed by the virus outbreak before recently urging the public to follow measures like wearing masks and avoiding unessential travel.

Iran has recorded daily death tolls of above 430 over the past five days. The Iranian Health Ministry said Saturday that the total number of confirmed cases has risen to above 840,000.

The new lockdown measures, which include closures of most businesses, shops, malls, and restaurants, include Iran’s largest cities of Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Iranian authorities have designated the nearly 160 towns and cities affected as hot spots because these urban centers have the highest daily per capita positive coronavirus test results.

The latest round of restrictions to stem the outbreak came as a spat among top Iranian health officials led to the resignation of at least two officials.

Iranian newspapers said Saturday that the deputy health minister in charge of research, Reza Malekzadeh, resigned from his post in reaction to recent remarks by the Minister of Health Saeed Namaki, who said government-led research projects were not successfully addressing the current needs of the ministry.

In reply, Malekzadeh in his resignation letter criticized the government’s mismanagement of the virus outbreak as leading to a “large number of human deaths.”

Iranian news websites also said that Ali Nobakht, an adviser to the health minister, resigned for similar reasons, without providing further details.