Iran curtails fire festival as virus deaths near 1,000

TEHRAN — Iran said 135 new coronavirus deaths took the country's overall toll to nearly 1,000 Tuesday, as it curtailed celebrations for a fire festival in a bid to contain the disease.

The COVID-19 outbreak in the Islamic republic is one of the deadliest outside China, where the illness originated.
The latest deaths, announced by health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour in a televised news conference, take the total death toll in Iran to 988.

Since it announced its first two deaths in the holy Shiite city of Qom last month, Iran has taken a series of steps to contain the virus.
However it has yet to impose any lockdowns and the outbreak has spread to all 31 of the country's provinces.
In its latest attempt to contain the virus, police banned celebrations marking the traditional fire festival that comes before Nowrouz -- the Persian New Year.

Chaharshanbe Soori falls on the last Wednesday of the Iranian calendar before the country's New Year's eve, which is on March 20 this year.
Celebrations start on Tuesday evening with Iranians traditionally jumping over fires and lighting fireworks, with many suffering burns resulting in hospitalisation.
"Those who go out can be infected with the coronavirus and make things harder for themselves and their families," state news agency IRNA quoted Tehran police official Keyvan Zahiri as saying.
Authorities in other provinces such as Isfahan, Golestan and Khuzestan had also cautioned people against observing the festival, IRNA reported.

The latest health ministry figures showed the COVID-19 disease was spreading fastest in Tehran province.
"Reports by more than 56 laboratories indicated that we have had 1,178 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours," Jahanpour said Tuesday.

"This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 16,169 as of today noon," he added.
Jahanpour also said 5,389 people who were infected had been discharged from hospitals "with general good health".

 '15 million screened'

Tehran province recorded 273 fresh cases of infection.
Alborz, to the west of Tehran, was next with 116 new cases, followed by East Azerbaijan with 78.
"As of this morning, more than 15 million of our countrymen have been screened" for symptoms, he said.
The official reiterated calls for Iranians to stay at home during the outbreak and asked them to report possible symptoms on a ministry website.

The site identifies the individual using their national identity number and asks if they have symptoms such as coughing or fever.
It also asks if they live with anyone suspected of carrying the virus, anyone under treatment or anyone who has recently recovered.
If the symptoms are not serious, the advice is to stay at home. The site tells people where their nearest healthcare centre is located.
According to the health ministry, the trend of rising reported infections is due to the increasing number of tests being carried out.
It says many patients started showing symptoms days after they were infected.
Official tolls given at the national level, announced every 24 hours, have usually lagged behind reports by local media and have sometimes been contradicted by provincial authorities.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that US sanctions were "impairing" Iran's ability to fight the COVID-19 disease.

"Join the growing global campaign to disregard US sanctions on Iran," he wrote.
The United States began reimposing crippling sanctions on the Islamic republic in 2018 after unilaterally withdrawing from an international accord on its nuclear programme.