Restrictions Ease for Business in Tehran as Capital's Covid-19 Alert Level Downgraded

The morning of Wednesday, December 2 broke with the news that distribution of a new shipment of flu vaccine to government-picked pharmacies across Iran had begun.

Heydar Mohammadi, director-general of the Food and Drug Administration’s Drugs and Controlled Substances Department, announced that the newly imported flu vaccine will cost consumers 192,000 tomans ($47) per dose. It will only be available from pharmacies chosen by the government, and to buy them, consumers must present their national ID cards to be registered in the department’s information system. Other government officials reported the same news about the vaccine, which has reportedly  been imported from France, but none of them made reference to the exact number of doses Iran has managed to acquire.

Tehran: From Red to Orange

The coronavirus alert level in a number of cities in Iran has switched either from “red” to “orange”, or from “orange” to “red”, meaning that from Saturday restrictions in these cities can either be tightened or eased. Tehran is one of the cities where the alert level will be officially downgraded on Saturday, but the director of Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce was quick to qualify it, saying this change had “nothing to do” with the recent lockdown and the situation was still "fragile".

Starting on Saturday, December 5, a specified group of businesses in Tehran will be able to reopen, provided they follow health protocols. Locations such as entertainment centers, daycare centers, restaurants (except for takeout), hair and beauty salons, museums, theaters, cinemas, indoor swimming pools, gyms and coffee shops will remain closed.

Air pollution in Tehran has reached a very high level and people with underlying diseases, the elderly, children and those suffering from heart problems should stay home, announced the Tehran Environmental Protection Bureau.

At the same time, Dr. Alireza Zali, director of Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce, warned that the situation in Tehran is fragile and the drop in coronavirus-related numbers is not the result of the lockdowns that were enacted on November 21. He reported that as a result of restrictions, the load of public transportation has reduced by 30 percent. “More than 90 percent of businesses cooperated with the application of the restrictions,” he said. “33,000 vehicles were prevented from entering Tehran and 25,000 vehicles were prevented from driving during the curfew at night,” reported Dr. Zali.

Some restrictions such as the ban on ceremonies, the limit on the number of employees that can work in person and the nighttime curfew on traffic will remain in place.

Provinces Round-up

Lockdowns and restrictions in Alborz province are to continue until at least Saturday, December 5. Alireza Soleimani, spokesman for Alborz Coronavirus Taskforce, said that although the province is still in a red state of alert, the authorities have yet to announce whether these restrictions will be renewed or not.

On Tuesday, December 1, the spokesman for the taskforce announced that the level in 38 cities has been downgraded from red to orange, meaning some restrictions in these cities will be suspended. Among the cities in Alborz province only one, Nazar Abad, was on the list.

Currently 792 patients with coronavirus symptoms are hospitalized across Alborz and in the past 24 hours, 108 new patients were hospitalized. In the same time period 13 other patients died and the total death toll in the province from Covid-19 reached 2,334.

In the past 24 hours 10 Covid-19 patients died in the province of Kermanshah, bringing the total death toll to 1,277 in the province, reported Mehdi Mohammadi, a spokesman for Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. In the same 24 hours 115 new Covid-19 patients were hospitalized and now 664 coronavirus patients are hospitalized across the province.

The number of hospitalized coronavirus patients in Yazd province has now fallen below 600, reported Dr. Ebrahim Soleimani, spokesman for Yazd University of Medical Sciences. In the past 24 hours another 165 coronavirus patients tested positive in the province and 10 patients lost their lives to the virus. Currently 590 patients with coronavirus symptoms are hospitalized in Yazd.

Iran’s Latest Coronavirus Statistics

In her daily briefing for December 2, health ministry spokeswoman Dr. Sima Sadat Lari announced the official coronavirus statistics for the past 24 hours:

For the first time in her briefings, Dr. Lari did not report the level of alert in various Iranian provinces. She did report that currently 64 cities are red, 278 are orange and 106 are yellow.

This is part of IranWire's coronavirus chronology. Read the full chronology