Iran to soon restart ‘low-risk’ economic activities, as new infection rate slows

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran says it will allow “low-risk” economic activities to resume from April 11 as its daily coronavirus infection rates slows for a fifth straight day.

“Restarting these activities does not mean we have abandoned the principle of staying at home,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says at a meeting of Iran’s anti-coronavirus task force.

The president, whose country has been battered by US economic sanctions, doesn’t specify what qualifies as “low risk” activities but says bans will remain on schools and large gatherings.

A “gradual” return of “low-risk” economic activity will be permitted from next Saturday in the provinces and from April 18 in Tehran, Rouhani says.

The coronavirus pandemic claimed another 151 lives over the past 24 hours, raising Iran’s declared death toll to 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianouche Jahanpour says today at his daily press briefing.

He also reports 2,483 new cases of COVID-19 infection, the fifth straight day of declining numbers, compared to a record number of 3,111 infections on March 31.

Iran, the Middle East country worst affected by the pandemic which originated in China, has declared a total of 58,226 infections, a figure which some foreign experts suspect is an underestimate.

After resisting a lockdown or quarantine measures, Iran imposed an intercity travel ban late last month.

— AFP