Iran introduces new transportation restrictions amid rising COVID-19 cases

Iran has introduced new restrictions on public transportation and traffic as new cases of novel coronavirus keep soaring across the country.

According to a Sunday statement by the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus, restrictions on transportation will be imposed and implemented as of the noon tomorrow (Monday) in 25 provincial capitals.

The statement noted that starting from the aforesaid date, entry and exit to and from 25 provincial capital cities will be banned for private cars carrying local number plates while private cars with non-local registration plates will be banned from entering those cities.

The restrictions will be applied as of 12:00 local time on Monday and will continue until midnight on Friday, November 6.

Public vehicles as well as police and service cars and ambulances will be exempt from new restrictions.

This came as the spokeswoman for Iran’s Health Ministry announced on Sunday another record for mortalities from COVID-19 pandemic.

Sima Sadat Lari said 434 people had died of coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours taking the country’s overall COVID-19 death toll to 35,298 across the country with 27 provinces still in red state in terms of coronavirus infections.

The spokeswoman added that during the same 24-hour period 7,719 new coronavirus cases were detected across the country as a result of which the total number of coronavirus cases in Iran has soared to 620,491.

In a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and members of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus late in October, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called the performance of the medical and health personnel “very brilliant” and their practice as “jihad in the way of Allah”.

The Leader said there is need to immediately launch a follow-up base and affiliated committees to implement the decisions of the headquarters and monitor their implementation.

Iranian Health Minister Saeid Namaki has announced that the country is nearing a phase of human trial for coronavirus vaccine as the country fights to contain the spread of the virus.

Namaki said that an Iranian vaccine for COVID-19 had shown promise in animal tests, adding, “We will soon begin clinical trial for human test of the vaccine.”