{"id":25156,"date":"2020-05-11T15:48:50","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T10:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/fear-in-iran-as-infections-rising-anew\/"},"modified":"2020-05-11T15:48:50","modified_gmt":"2020-05-11T10:18:50","slug":"fear-in-iran-as-infections-rising-anew-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=25156","title":{"rendered":"Fear in Iran as infections rising anew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tehran<\/strong>: While many residents in Iran\u2019s capital are taking advantage of loosened COVID-19 controls, some worry about a new spike in infections in what remains the Middle East\u2019s deadliest virus epicenter. \u201cThe line of fools,\u201d muttered shopkeeper Manouchehr, peering disdainfully at a queue of customers outside a foreign currency dealer in the Sadeghieh district of western Tehran. Many in the long line stood close to one another and did not wear masks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A traffic policeman told AFP such queues have appeared regularly ever since the money changers re-opened. People rarely observe basic anti-contagion protocols, he complained. The government began paring back coronavirus controls outside Tehran on April 11, arguing that the economy \u2013 already sagging under punitive US sanctions \u2013 needed to get back to bare bones operations. It allowed small businesses to reopen in the capital a week later, before permitting malls to welcome customers on April 21 and barbers on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At 802, declared daily infections in Iran on May 2 reached their lowest level since early March. But this critical daily number has since begun resurging, breaching 1,500 on Saturday to take the country\u2019s total number of confirmed infections beyond 106,000. The capital\u2019s streets, bazaars and malls are now bustling after being nearly deserted for weeks after the bulk of control measures were imposed in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Milad, a shopkeeper in a mall, was conflicted about the easing of movement restrictions. \u201cAll these customers coming in will endanger our lives \u2013 us who are forced to come\u201d to work, he said. The mall gets very busy in the evenings, noted the 22-year-old, who did not have any protective equipment. The COVID-19 respiratory disease has killed nearly 6,600 people in Iran since the first two fatalities were reported in the city of Qom on February 19, according to authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi has called Tehran the country\u2019s \u201cAchilles heel\u201d in the fight against the virus. The city\u2019s eight million residents are densely packed together and it is a magnet for hundreds of thousands of workers from other provinces. The government moved to ease restrictions even as Tehran remained at red on its color graded risk model \u2013 white denoting low risk, yellow medium and red high risk. Schools, universities, cinemas and stadiums remain closed to contain the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPeople being careful made infections drop, but as soon as the disease was deemed less of a concern, we saw cases grow,\u201d said Masoud Mardani, an infectious disease expert at the health ministry. The rise is \u201cpartly due to the reopening (of businesses) and people going out shopping,\u201d he told the semi-official ISNA news agency, while also citing an increase in travel in Tehran province. Health officials have vowed to re-impose stringent measures if the number of cases continues to climb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But many Iranians remain adamant that they have to work to avoid financial ruin. \u201cLife costs money,\u201d said Hamed. \u201cPeople have to go to work since this virus has been with us for about three months now.\u201d The 22-year-old was among those out on the streets without a mask, deeming such protection \u201clargely ineffective\u201d. He had travelled over 150 km from Qom to Tehran for banking business for the private firm that employs him. It is a trip he has to undertake every few days and says he cannot refuse for fear of losing his job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few streets away, pedestrians were shopping for fresh vegetables and dried fruit \u2013 mostly women or older men, but this time, mainly in masks. \u201cI think maybe only half the people follow health protocols\u201d across the capital as a whole, said Zahra, a 30-year-old accountant. \u201cEither people don\u2019t care or don\u2019t have the patience\u201d to wear a mask, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mohammad, a former building contractor, complained that masks were expensive and in short supply. A disposable surgical mask can cost from 49,000 rials (30 US cents, using the unofficial rate) to 10 or 15 times that amount for the better quality durable coverings. \u201cThey should have given them to people for free,\u201d said the mask-less 58-year-old. But Mohammad\u2019s biggest gripe was overcrowding on buses, where red crosses marked on half of the seats to maintain social distancing are routinely ignored. He said he was outraged to see a bus with \u201c40 people on it\u201d during his morning commute and urged authorities to increase services. \u2013 <em><a href=\"https:\/\/news.kuwaittimes.net\/website\/fear-in-iran-as-infections-rising-anew\/\">AFP<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tehran: While many residents in Iran\u2019s capital are taking advantage of loosened COVID-19 controls, some worry about a new spike in infections in what remains the Middle East\u2019s deadliest virus epicenter. \u201cThe line of fools,\u201d muttered shopkeeper Manouchehr, peering disdainfully at a queue of customers outside a foreign currency dealer in the Sadeghieh district of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22409,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}