Iranians will have to adapt "to the new way of life", adopted to fight against the coronavirus still "a certain" time, announced on Sunday March 29 the Iranian authorities, while the Covid-19 has already killed 2,640 people in the country.

The Islamic Republic is one of the countries most affected by the new coronavirus pandemic. It announced on February 19 the first cases of contamination on its soil, but a senior official recently acknowledged that the virus was likely already present in Iran in January.

Over 38,000 cases identified

The disease has left 123 more dead in the past 24 hours, Health Ministry spokesman Kianouche Jahanpour said on Sunday in his daily TV press briefing. At the same time, health authorities have identified 2,901 new cases of Covid-19 contamination, bringing the number of officially confirmed and declared cases in Iran to 38,309.

According to the spokesperson, the country has 3,467 Covid-19 patients in "critical" condition, but 12,391 others have recovered following their hospitalization.

"We must prepare to live with this virus until a treatment or vaccine is discovered, which is not the case to date," President Hassan Rohani said earlier in a council ministers. "The new way of life we ​​have adopted" will have "benefits" for society as a whole, he said, noting that "these changes will likely have to stay in place for some time".

Is the pandemic peak past?

After having done everything to avoid imposing containment or quarantine measures, the Tehran government decided on March 25 to ban all travel between cities. The measure applies until April 8 and could be extended.

Without being officially confined, residents have been called for several weeks to stay at home "as much as possible". By the end of February, schools and universities had closed in some provinces before the measure was extended to the whole country.

In view of the latest statements from Hassan Rohani, the return to school after the Iranian New Year school holidays (this year from March 19 to April 3) seems compromised.

At the cabinet meeting, the president said he had held a "very good videoconference meeting" the day before with top flight experts and doctors.

According to them, he said, "in some provinces, yes, we have passed the peak [of the pandemic] and we are on a downward curve, but as for other provinces" it is still too early to rule.

On March 25, Hassan Rohani said that the country had passed "the first wave of the disease", but that there could be "a new one [...] in the coming days".

Several MPs, members of the government or personalities have been contaminated by Covid-19. The most recent is Mohammad-Réza Khatami, brother of former President Mohammad Khatami and reformer who was Vice-President of the Parliament. According to the official Irna agency, he was hospitalized.

Conversely, Deputy Minister of Health Iraj Harirchi, who had tested positive for the new coronavirus in late February, after having appeared in bad shape at a press conference, has returned to public life. He appeared on television recalling a few safety precautions and calling on people who are staying at home to be nice to each other.

With AFP

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