Schools, Mosques Closed in Tehran due to Coronavirus

Schools, libraries, mosques, and other public institutions in Tehran will be closed for a week Saturday, as part of measures to stem the rising number of coronavirus cases, the state media reported citing authorities in the Iranian capital.

The lockdown also applies to all social and cultural ceremonies and conferences, as well as to universities, seminaries, libraries, museums, theatres, gyms, cafes, and hair salons.

The decision came after Alireza Zali, head of the Tehran Coronavirus Taskforce, called for the shutdown to help control the pandemic.

Zali warned, in an interview broadcast on state television, that if the spread continues at the current rate in Tehran, there would be a three- to five-fold increase in cases as well as a rise in the fatality rate to between 1.5% and 3%.

The lockdown will run to Friday, October 9.

On Saturday, Iran’s death toll from the novel coronavirus rose by 179 to 26,746, while the identified cases by 3,523 to 468,119, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV.

It is worth mentioning that the novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide.

In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of coronavirus, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.

On March 11, WHO declared coronavirus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.

Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.

Coronavirus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.

It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.

The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.

People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.