Muharram mourning ceremonies and processions continue to go ahead across Iran, many of them defying health guidelines issued by the National Coronavirus Taskforce. And yet the office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei announced the cancelation of this year’s scheduled events at Imam Khomeini Hussainiya, a congregational hall for Shia religious ceremonies. The Supreme Leader was due to be present at the event.
“Be advised,” said the statement, “that this year, in accordance with health guidelines and criteria announced by the National Coronavirus Task, the mourning ceremonies at Imam Khomeini Hussainiya will not be open to the public." All mourning ceremonies in the presence of the Islamic Revolution’s Supreme Leader will be broadcast on national TV, it said.
The most prominent in-person Muharram ceremony in Iran might have been canceled, but the measures put in place in that situation were not applied elsewhere. Some officials continued to glorify other ceremonies, while paying lip service to heath protocols. “This year’s mourning ceremonies by our wise people who observe social distancing and health protocols are an example and a model for the whole world,” announced General Hossein Ashtari, commander of the national police.
On Sunday, August 23, Ali Asghar Mounesan, Minister of Tourism, had objected to the National Coronavirus Taskforce’s appeal to people to avoid traveling during the upcoming religious holidays and had said that “traveling has the least effect on spreading coronavirus.” However, on August 24, he denied that he had issued this criticism.
“Coronavirus dealt a hard blow to tourism in the world and this blow fell on tourism in Iran as well,” Mounesan told a radio program. “Of course, in July we did get the permission of the National Coronavirus Taskforce and we resumed all [tourist activities]. Fortunately, domestic tourism had such a high potential that it rebounded quickly but, unfortunately, with the surge in the epidemic, restrictions, especially on traveling, were imposed. Now tourism is not in such good shape.”
Economy has Been “Managed Well"
In a video conference with Ayatollah Khamenei, President Rouhani downplayed the impact of the pandemic on the Iranian economy. "While the economy of many major countries in the world shrank by 20 percent, the Iranian economy was damaged by only three percent in the face of the problems caused by coronavirus outbreak, which is a sign of the government's ability to withstand this problem and manage it,” he told the Supreme Leader.
"The fall in oil prices, and especially the unprecedented and oppressive US sanctions, also created problems for the people,” Rouhani said. “But in the face of these problems ... using the experience of successfully dealing with these two shocks, the government was also able to manage the country well in dealing with problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic,” said Rouhani.
Khuzestan province has been in a critical situation in recent months, but on August 24, Gholamreza Shariati, governor of the province, reported that more people were being released from hospitals than being admitted. “Currently between 180 to 190 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized in Khuzestan, whereas we had more than 1,000 prior to this,” he said.
In recent years, September has been a busy month for parents of young children, who have been generally enthusiastic about enrolling them in pre-school. But this year, there has been a noticeable decline in registration at preschools. For instance, Nahid Fazeli, deputy head of Kermanshah’s Education Bureau, announced that the parents of just 10 percent of preschoolers have registered their children.
It is not yet clear whether, starting in September, schools will be held online or if students will be required to attend in person. What is clear is that not all students have the means to participate in online classes.
The Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce has opposed the reopening of schools in the capital. Rezvan Hakimzadeh, the deputy education minister for primary schools, said “our primary concern is the safety of the students. Naturally, in a situation where the health of the students is threatened, we will use the internet and other tools to teach them. There can be no doubt that in-person teaching is more effective, but we cannot choose the situation we are in. Instead, it is forced upon us.”
But it is not only students attending schools that might spread coronavirus, warned Hossein Farshidi, the president of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences. “Our worry in reopening schools is the danger of students becoming infected when they are commuting to and from school.”
In her daily briefing for August 24, the health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari said, as in the last several days, 15 provinces are still in a red state of alert and 11 provinces continue to be in an orange state:
- Red: Mazandaran, Tehran, Qom, Golestan, North Khorasan, Ardebil, Isfahan, Alborz, Razavi Khorasan, Kerman, Semnan, East Azerbaijan, Markazi, Yazd and Gilan
- Orange: Fars, Ilam, Lorestan, Hormozgan, Zanjan, Qazvin, West Azerbaijan, Bushehr, Hamedan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad
Dr. Lari also announced the official coronavirus statistics for the last 24 hours:
- New confirmed coronavirus cases: 2,245
- New hospitalizations: 1,132
- Total cases since the outbreak: 361,150
- Total coronavirus tests conducted in Iran: 3,062,422
- Total recovered from coronavirus: 311,365
- New fatalities: 133
- Total death toll since the outbreak: 20,776
Dr. Lari also reported that 3,848 hospitalized Covid-19 patients are in a critical condition.
This is part of IranWire's coronavirus chronology. Read the full chronology
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