Tehran Governor Imposes New Restrictions after Virus Surge

Iran

July 14th, 11:40am

Asharq Al-Awsat

People wearing face masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus shop at the old grand bazaar of the Iranian city of Zanjan on July 5, 2020. (AP)

A semi-official Iranian news agency said Tehran’s governor has imposed new restrictions because of a spike in coronavirus cases, ordering mosques and several businesses closed for a week in the Iranian capital. According to the Tasnim news agency, Anoushiravan Mohseni Bandpey, the governor, said the measures would apply to mosques and women’s beauty salons, gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and coffee shops. The development on Tuesday comes after Iran has been seeing a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths in recent weeks, including record numbers of fatalities so far in the pandemic for the country. Health Ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari said 179 more people died in Iran from the virus on Monday, bringing the country's death toll to 13,211. She also said there were 2,521 new confirmed cases on Monday, more than half of which were hospitalized, bringing the overall number of infections to 262,173. Iran is the regional hotspot for COVID-19, with the highest number of infections and deaths from the virus.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2389366/tehran-governor-imposes-new-restrictions-after-virus-surge