Wide-Ranging Mask Rules Introduced as Test Kit Production Ramps Up in Iran

At a meeting of the Taskforce, President Rouhani said government services must be made available to those who ask for it provided they wear masks, and that wearing masks in crowded spaces and government offices must be mandatory from tomorrow, July 5. Furthermore, he added, government employees must also wear masks in the workplace and if they do not they must be prevented from entering and must be considered absent from work. Rouhani also declared that businesses that do not follow health protocols would be first warned, and then shut down after a week if they did not comply.

The ban on providing services to people who are not wearing masks was not limited to government offices but included public spaces such as shopping malls, added Senior Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi. He did not elaborate how this rule was to be enforced.

Similarly, starting on the morning of July 5, all drivers and passengers of public transportation in the country — taxis, buses and metros — would have to wear masks, announced Deputy Interior Minister Mehdi Jamalinejad, citing an ordinance by the National Coronavirus Taskforce.

Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz, head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, reported that daily production of masks in Iran is now between six and seven million. He called for more resourcing for production companies, and claimed production of masks in Iran is now eight times of what it was before the coronavirus outbreak while 10 times more disinfectant liquids and gels are being produced.

Meanwhile, there is some confusion over what products Iran can export. PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test kits cannot be exported and must only be used in diagnostic tests inside the country, said National Coronavirus Scientific Committee chairman Mostafa Ghanei, but the export of antibody test kits is permitted.

Lives Hang in Balance Amid Exams and Military Training Decisions

Mohammad Vahidi, vice chairman of the parliament’s Education and Research Committee, has warned that despite the infection risk posed by crowded areas, there was no alternative to holding 2020’s nationwide university entrance exams: otherwise the start of the next academic year would be disrupted.

On the other hand, Dr. Minoo Moharez, a member of the National Coronavirus Taskforce, said that the entrance exams must be postponed and other students who have been infected with coronavirus must be able to take their tests remotely. She warned against holding any exams in-person, adding that such a format could only be acceptable if the organizers could force the participants to sit at least 1.5 away from each other and wear masks. But, she pointed out, wearing masks for hours is difficult to endure.

While it is not clear why conscripts should be kept in barracks at all, General Taghi Mehri, the head of Iran’s Public Conscription Organization, reported that according to an order by the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the basic military training of new draftees had been shortened by a month and, until further notice, would last only one month.

The Official Briefing

Health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari said that in the 24 hours leading up to July 4, 2,449 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Iran, of whom 1,148 were hospitalized: bringing the ministry’s total number of cases to 237,878. In the same 24 hours, she reported, 148 Covid-19 patients had died, pushing the official death toll to 11,408.

The provinces of Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Ilam, Hormozgan, Bushehr and Khorasan Razavi were rated “red” and the provinces of Tehran, Fars, Isfahan, Alborz, Lorestan, Mazandaran, Hamedan, Zanjan and Sistan and Baluchistan remained “orange”. As of now, Sadat Lari added, a rather paltry-sounding 1,769,520 coronavirus tests had been performed in Iran.

Provinces Round-Up

In line with the new guidance on masks, the governor of Tehran province Anooshirvan Mohseni Bandpey said the surge in infections and hospitalizations in Iran was “alarming” and those who refused to wear masks would first be warned, then blocked from riding on public transport.

Khuzestan province has now been rated “red”, or high-risk, more than six weeks. Despite some restrictions in place, offices and markets are still carrying out their activities as normal. For a while the capital city of Ahvaz was in a “yellow” state but now it is “red” again and according to Farhad Abolnejadian, president of Ahvaz Jondishapur University of Medical Sciences, the number of “red”-rated cities in Khuzestan has now increased from 9 to 12.

More than 80 percent of Ilam’s population live in “red” zones, said Dr. Mohammad Karimian, president of Ilam University of Medical Sciences. The reliability of official statistics in Iran, however, is always questionable and officials often disagree with each other. In this case, Ghasem Soleimani Dashtaki, governor of Ilam, personally put the number of the population who live in “red” zones at 90 percent. He announced on July 4 that certain restrictions had been re-imposed, including a week-long lockdown of educational, cultural, religious and sports centers.

Mohammad Reza Saeeni, vice president of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, said that 85 percent of the population of Zanjan province was in danger of infection by coronavirus. And Asghar Jafari, an official of the same university, warned that hospitals in the province are running out of capacity. To prevent a tragedy, he said, there may be no option but to set up field hospitals.

Restrictions must be quickly re-imposed in Isfahan, said Tahereh Changiz, president of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. She warned that in recent days, the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in Isfahan – excluding those in the cities of Kashan, Aran and Bidgol – had reached 687, or close to the level seen in March, including 110 patients in the past 24 hours.

The spread of coronavirus in the cities of Larestan, Khonj and Evaz in Fars province has picked up speed, hospital beds for coronavirus patients in southern Fars are filled to the capacity and other hospitals are being equipped for admitting Covid-19 patients, reported Mohammad Hossein Karimi, president of Larestan University of Medical Sciences. In the province of Sistan and Baluchistan, Mohammad Hashemi Shahri, president of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, reported that one-third of coronavirus patients were having to be hospitalized in ICU wards.