Despite warnings, the economic activity restart plan will not be delayed

The Health Minister says the coronavirus crisis in Iran has not been contained and warns against "delusions." However, the Interior Minister has spoken publicly in parliament about the decline in the disease and defended the implementation of the plan to start economic activity from April 13.

On Tuesday, April 7, Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli spoke in a public session of the parliament about the declining trend of the coronavirus in the provinces of Gilan, Mazandaran, and Khorasan. The government's plan is to start economic activities by "implementing a new smart distancing plan for guilds," which the interior minister divided into three categories with "low," "medium," and "high" risk, and said that low-risk guilds will start working from April 13, except for Tehran. The government's plan in Tehran will start from April 19. He said that decisions about holding gatherings and closing schools and universities will also be made after this date, and their closure will continue until the end of April.

Although a group of representatives criticized this date before the parliament resumed its work and wanted to extend the closure of offices and economic centers for another month with a three-point plan, the majority ultimately sided with the government, arguing that "no one asks, 'Where will we get the money if we close the country for a month?'" Fardin Farmand, a member of the middle class, asked this question and at the same time criticized the government, saying, "We convened this meeting today to think about the state of the country, but the government has not brought a bill to solve the problem."

Health Minister: Some people should not be delusional

Another minister in parliament on Tuesday was Health Minister Saeed Namaki. Unlike the Interior Minister, who promised a downward trend, he said: "We have not yet reached the containment and control stage. Some should not be deluded. We are in the disease management stage."

The Health Minister referred to both the need for social distancing and the economic situation in his speech. He addressed the plight of millions of people in Iran who live below the poverty line, saying: “We cannot abandon a sock seller who makes a living by selling socks, we must either provide for him or let him continue his business. That is why we cannot shut down industry and production.” He added that the reason for explaining “smart distancing” is also so that “we can both avoid economic collapse and control the coronavirus.”

There is still no clear answer to how practical the smart distancing plan is in offices, subways and public transportation, private companies and other business areas. The Minister of Health warns that “managing Corona may take longer than we imagined.” And he emphasizes: “There is no phenomenon more devastating for the economy than a prolonged Corona period. We must do our part to contain this issue in the shortest possible time so that we can also help the economy.”

He also said that details regarding the spread of the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease should be discussed in a closed meeting; a disease that, according to him, has existed in Iran since February 1 of last year and has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 Iranians.

Concerns about public discontent

The Young Journalists Club quoted Alireza Zali, commander of the headquarters to combat the coronavirus in Tehran, as saying: “One of the concerns of the people with the new interventions is that the economic cycle will be disrupted, and this disruption will create public dissatisfaction.” According to him, although after the peak of the disease, we will reach the bottom of the disease, “after that, we will reach an upward slope, and we must know that the longer this time is, the more disruption the economic cycle will experience.” He advised that one should “avoid hasty decisions, because this form of decision-making causes more damage.” According to him, if the interventions had been serious in the early days, “the economic blow would have been less.”

Alireza Zali says Tehran is still in the upward phase of the coronavirus pandemic and “any haste will expose us to a new crisis.” He predicts that Tehran will face a higher number of infected people next week, noting the large number of citizens in the capital over the past three days, the effects and casualties of which will become clear in the next nine days.

One of the high-ranking officials of the Islamic Republic who reacted to Hassan Rouhani's plan to start "low-risk" economic activities from April 13, that is, three days from now, was Ebrahim Raisi, the head of the judiciary, who criticized, "The requirement of prudence is that in the conflict between people's health and the opening of businesses, protecting people's lives takes priority."

Letter from the Minister of Health to other ministries

The Minister of Health, although now joining the President in the social distancing plan, was among those who had previously written in a letter to Rouhani, “Any arbitrary decision by any governmental, non-governmental, cultural, religious, etc. organization that is not approved will quickly engulf the country’s health system and, consequently, the economy.” He had warned that “the smallest ill-considered move that is not in line with expert opinion will cause irreparable damage.”

On Tuesday, April 9, ISNA news agency reported his new letter to ministries and executive agencies, in which "guidelines for the second step of the fight against Covid-19 were announced and their implementation was emphasized."

In this letter, he emphasized the need to maintain a physical distance of at least one meter, and said that maintaining this distance is essential and must continue as long as the disease is circulating in the community. The letter emphasized that "given the high transmissibility of the new coronavirus, even one person infected and failure to maintain appropriate distance in a population can explosively transmit the virus among individuals in that population."

According to an announcement issued by the Coronavirus Response Headquarters on Tuesday, starting from April 13, administrative centers will be active with two-thirds of their employees instead of one-third, "in compliance with health principles, and working hours will be from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m."

Among the officials at the Ministry of Health and those involved in combating the coronavirus, no one has yet made a statistical prediction about what situation they will face in a week or two after the government's plan begins.

Source: DW