Iran's Strictest Lockdown Since the Beginning of Coronavirus Looms

More details surfaced on November 19 about the new “extensive lockdowns” due to take effect from Saturday across Iran, with the health minister announcing that violators will be shown “no mercy”.

Prior to the new restrictions being imposed, a ban on travel to and from 25 provincial capitals in the country was due to start 48 hours earlier, though it was delayed in some areas due to local officials not co-ordinating their actions. Vehicles with out-of-city license plates are now banned from entering cities in “red” or “orange” states of alert. The fine for entering “orange” cities is 500 thousand tomans ($121) and rises to one million tomans ($242) for “red” cities. As a consequence, Iran’s Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization reports that road traffic increased by 8.2 percent ahead of the ban, with highways between Tehran and the northern provinces – a vacationers’ favourite – particularly clogged.

The daily number of officially-recorded coronavirus fatalities still hovers close to 500. Some experts believe that this could be brought down in around two weeks if restrictions are properly observed – but others say that without adequate financial support from the government, many will be forced to flout the rules.

Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, who is also commander of the National Coronavirus Taskforce’s Base of Operations, said on November 19 that in some instances, “more than 60 to 70 percent of infected individuals who were supposed to be in quarantine or stay at home have gone out and have had contact with others”.  Hossein Zolfaghari, head of the taskforce’s Security Committee, reiterated that those who break the rules will be fined 200 thousand tomans ($49). Health Minister Saeed Namaki added: “We will show no mercy toward coronavirus violators.”

 

Tehran Gears Up for Lockdowns

Tehran Municipality’s Transportation and Traffic Bureau has announced that the operating hours of the city’s metro and bus lines will be extended to 10pm from Saturday, November 21, to “better provide services to passengers by complying with social distancing.”

Tehran is currently a “red” city. The Tehran bazaar is a covered area and, therefore, will be closed when the new restrictions start, announced Hossein Ghasemi, secretary the National Coronavirus Taskforce’s Security Committee. The taskforce also announced that all holy shrines in Tehran province will be closed until further notice.

Meanwhile, Alireza Delavari, deputy director of Tehran’s Coronavirus Taskforce, reported that a survey on people’s attitudes to restrictions had recently been conducted in Tehran. “This survey was conducted in the past three weeks during the third wave of the epidemic,” he said. “Approximately 600 people in Tehran were asked about their participation in social gatherings. Fifty-seven percent said that they do not go gatherings, 33 percent said that sometimes they do but 10 percent said that they do not believe in coronavirus and are still going out.”

 

Calls for Banks to be Closed

In two separate open letters, Iran’s Association of Private Banks and Credit Institutions and the Banking Coordination Council have called on the director and spokesman of the National Coronavirus Taskforce to shut down banks for two weeks as well.

According to these bodies, since the outbreak of coronavirus at least 20,000 bank employees and workers have been infected at work and more than 150 have died, with many others currently in hospital or quarantining at home. The sector representatives also pointed out that most banking services nowadays are conducted online, not in person.

Separately, the Iranian Money Changers Association announced that currency exchanges would continue to provide services but with only half of their workforce in place in areas in a “red” state of alert.

 

Confirmed Coronavirus Cases Blocked from Travel

Transportation hubs are now being notified through computer systems when somebody tests positive, reported health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari. “Railroad companies and six or seven airlines have already done this by connecting their information systems,” she said. According to Dr. Lari, an individual who tests positive will be denied a ticket or turned back if they try to board a train or a plane. In a cab driver tests positive, they are warned not to pick up passengers for 14 days.

The plan, Dr. Lari says, will reach full implementation once Iran has access to “rapid tests” that take just 20 to 25 minutes to return a result. Presently, health officials report, the rate of testing has increased from around 22,000 to 40,000 per day and should reach 80,000 over the course of next week.

 

Provinces Round-Up

People who test positive for coronavirus are traced through their mobile phones to ensure they are not going out and spreading the virus, announced Houshang Bazvand, the governor of Kermanshah. He assured people that location-tracing does not mean anybody is listening to their conversations.

In the past 24 hours another 13 Covid-19 patients died in Kermanshah, bringing the total death toll in the province since the outbreak of coronavirus to 1,129, reported Mehdi Mohammadi, the spokesman for the coronavirus taskforce at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. In the same 24-hour stretch another 173 new patients with coronavirus symptoms were admitted to hospitals in the province and 171 patients were discharged. Currently, 1,068 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized in Kermanshah.

Ahmad Hossein Fataei, director-general of the Education Bureau of Lorestan, reported that 30 reporters in this province have been infected with coronavirus since the epidemic started but all are now in good physical health.

By the order of the Council of Religious Associations in Razavi Khorasan, all gatherings and ceremonies at homes or in mosques and prayer halls will banned from November 21 to December 5.

And Mohammad Mehdi Marashi, the head of Zahedan Municipality’s Crisis Prevention and Management in Sistan and Baluchistan province, announced that all burial ceremonies in the city’s Mohammad Rasoul Cemetery were henceforth banned and only the immediate families of the deceased, up to 15 people, would be allowed to take part in funeral ceremonies. He also announced that day markets and parks in the city will be closed from Saturday, November 21, until further notice.

 

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for November 19, health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

Dr. Lari also reported that all 31 Iranian provinces are in red, orange or yellow states of alert.

This article is part of IranWire’s coronavirus chronology. You can read the full chronology here.