Iran imposes new restrictions as coronavirus toll rises to 107
Schools, universities will remain closed until March 20; minister urges citizens to reduce use of paper money; checkpoints set up to limit travel between major cities; Washington accuses Tehran of lying to own people
Iran will set up checkpoints to limit travel between major cities and urged citizens on Thursday to reduce their use of paper money to fight a spreading outbreak of the new coronavirus, which has killed at least 107 people across the Islamic Republic.
Iran’s Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced his country’s new restrictions at a televised press conference.
He added that schools and universities will remain closed through Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on March 20.
He said people should stay in their vehicles at gas stations and allow attendants to fill their gas tanks to avoid the spread of the virus.
In the past 24 hours, 15 more people had died, bringing the total deaths to 107, ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said. There were 3,513 confirmed cases in all, up by 591 from the day before.
Namaki said Iran had begun a national plan to combat coronavirus which will start in the handful of locations most affected by the disease and expand to other parts of the country, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Families would be contacted by telephone to help identify possible cases and health teams will disinfect public spaces, he said, listing the provinces of Qom, Gilan and Isfahan as the locations where the plan would begin.
The plan announced on Thursday did not mention door-to-door screening.
“Our method is not going into homes,” Namaki said on state TV. “We can use digital communications and ultimately the telephone. So we don’t see a reason to go to the doors of peoples’ homes.” The telecommunications ministry is working on an app to enable people to register cases of suspected infections, he said.
Home visits will only take place if a patient requires assistance to be hospitalized, Namaki said, and health teams would wear full protective gear to help with transport and disinfection.
“Home visits are possible in very rare circumstances, with prior coordination and out of complete necessity,” he said, according to the official IRNA news agency.
A senior US official on Thursday accused Iran of lying to its own people over the extent of the coronavirus outbreak and expressed dismay Tehran had refused an offer of American help.
Brian Hook, the US State Department’s envoy on Iran, said Tehran’s response to the virus was one reason Iranian authorities were enduring a “crisis of legitimacy.” “Iran lied to its own people about the coronavirus,” Hook told reporters on a trip to Paris to coordinate policy with Europe.
“It told them it was not anything to worry about but at the same time the virus was spreading throughout Iran.” “Today as a result of the government’s mismanagement and not being transparent with its own people Iran has one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the coronavirus,” Hook said.
In Iran, healthcare workers are not just treating patients - doctors and nurses are also lifting spirits with light-hearted dance performances that have spread massively on social media.
In a series of short video clips, medical staff dressed in surgical masks and protective medical clothing can be seen dancing in symbolic defiance of the outbreak that has claimed more than 100 lives in the country. Iranians have widely shared the videos apparently shot in hospital wards and operating theatres, the dancers’ identities disguised by hospital scrubs and face covers as they wiggle and shake to Iranian pop and traditional tunes.
Multiple clips can be found on Twitter marked in English as “coronavirus Iran dancing,” although AFP could not verify the authenticity of the individual videos.
Iran’s authorities so far seem to be tolerating the “dance challenge” craze, and some videos have garnered around 100,000 views on Twitter, Instagram and other social media.
Not everyone is amused by the clips and some Twitter users have denounced them as “sin.” Reformist activist Azar Mansouri on the other hand wrote online that “no words can express our gratitude for their efforts.
“They care for the sick and at the same time keep up the morale of their countrymen and their own families.” Another Twitter user joked that “the only places the vice squad doesn’t dare to go are hospitals with coronavirus patients.” Many people remain locked in their homes and Iranians feel increasingly isolated after several airlines cancelled international flights.