Implementation of New COVID-19 Restrictions in 13 Iranian Provinces
Iran’s Deputy Minister of Health announced that new restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic will be implemented in 13 provinces of the country. These restrictions include various centers ranging from museums and tourist sites to educational and sports facilities.
Apparently, as Iran’s President and some other officials of the country have announced, the COVID-19 pandemic has not been adequately controlled in Iran. Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Minister of Health of the Islamic Republic, stated in an interview with a news network that COVID-19 restrictions will be reopened in 13 Iranian provinces according to a timetable.
He announced the names of these 13 provinces as follows: Sistan and Baluchestan, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, West and East Azerbaijan, Fars, Razavi Khorasan, Tehran, Alborz, and Kerman.
The Deputy Minister of Health also explained that the centers subject to these restrictions have been classified into two groups, category three and category four. Category three includes universities, schools, seminaries, technical and vocational schools, language centers and other educational institutions and libraries, kindergartens, indoor swimming pools, cinemas, theaters and similar centers, museums and museum gardens, banquet halls, women’s hair salons and beauty centers, reduced operating hours for metro and intra-city transportation, mosques and prayer spaces, and holding in-person exams.
Category four also includes the following activities: holding social, cultural, religious ceremonies and conferences, sports clubs for high-contact sports including wrestling, karate, and judo, boarding schools, remote work for sensitive group employees, cafes, coffee shops, teahouses and tobacco product distribution centers, zoos and amusement parks, water recreational centers, indoor swimming pools, and indoor sports clubs.
While the Deputy Minister of Health reported the closure of museums and museum gardens in 13 Iranian provinces, the Director General of Museums’ Affairs expressed lack of awareness about this decision and told the ILNA news agency: “The closure or non-closure of museums is subject to the decision of the National Coronavirus Headquarters and no such decision has been made so far. However, if such a decision is made, we will implement it.”
Increase in Hospital Admissions in Tehran
The spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday, July 1, the daily statistics of COVID-19 cases. According to Sima Sadat Lari, two thousand and 549 new patients were identified in Iran in the past 24 hours, and thus the total number of coronavirus-infected people in Iran reached 230 thousand and 211 people.
Based on these statistics, 141 patients with COVID-19 also lost their lives in the past 24 hours, and the total death toll reached 10 thousand and 958.
Lari also said that the number of hospital admissions in Tehran has increased significantly. According to her, Khuzestan, Kurdistan, West and East Azerbaijan, Hormozgan, Bushehr, Razavi Khorasan, and Kermanshah provinces are also in critical situation, and Isfahan, Hamadan, Zanjan, Kerman, North Khorasan, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad provinces are in warning situation.
Based on these statistics, currently three thousand and 81 COVID-19 patients are in severe condition.
Source: DW
