Schools, libraries, mosques and other public institutions in Tehran will be closed for a week as part of measures to stem a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases, Reuters reports.
The closure plan – which will also affect universities, seminaries, libraries, museums, theatres, gyms, cafes and hair salons – came after Alireza Zali, the head of Tehran’s coronavirus taskforce, called for the shutdown to help control the epidemic.
Zali said in an interview on state television that if the spread of the continued at the current rate in the Iranian capital, there would be as much as a five-fold increase in cases and a rise in the fatality rate to between 1.5% and 3%.
Iran’s death toll from the coronavirus rose by 179 on Saturday to 26,746, and identified cases by 3,523 to 468,119, the health ministry said.
Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, said anyone concealing a Covid-19 infection would face a severe penalty.
“Anyone who feels ill and it’s clear to them that they are ill, must not hide their illness,” Rouhani said in televised remarks. Otherwise they will be committing “the highest offence” that will demand “the highest punishment”.
Those not wearing a mask in public will be fined, he said. Government employees who fail to observe regulations face measures ranging from warnings to a one-year suspension from their posts.
Government offices where people go for services should not serve people who do not observe health protocols, such as wearing masks.
Businesses that flout regulations could face closure.
Rouhani said penalties would be most severe in Tehran, where in recent weeks the daily death toll from the coronavirus has been more than 100 compared with less than 10 at the end of the first wave of the virus earlier this year, according to Zali.
Iran has registered more than 3,500 new cases in each of the past six days, with a record 3,825 cases announced on Thursday, official statistics showed.
