The wearing of the mask will be compulsory to enter certain public places covered in Iran, indicated this Saturday July 4 the president Hassan Rohani, while 148 new deaths were recorded in the country, the most affected by the pandemic in the Middle East .
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At a meeting of the Committee to fight the epidemic, Rohani announced the entry into force of the new measure on Sunday: " From tomorrow, you will have to wear a mask if you want to enter a covered place ", he said. Since the end of June, the Ministry of Health had launched an " I wear a mask " campaign to encourage Iranians to protect themselves against the virus.
The new daily toll brings the total number of victims to 11,408 dead, spokesman for the Sima health ministry Sadat Lari said on state television on Saturday. " In the past 24 hours, we have documented 2,449 new virus-related cases, bringing the total number of infections to 237,878 ," added Lari.
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The application of the new measure could however be difficult because, according to the Municipality of Tehran, many people do not wear a mask when using public transport in the capital where it is already compulsory. Rohani also asserted that the implementation of this instruction required " a kind of guarantee of application ". " In administrative offices, it could be easier: by a decree, we can prevent people without masks from entering it, " he said.
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The Islamic Republic, which announced its first cases of SARS-CoV-2 virus on February 19, is by far the most affected country in the Middle East. According to Lari, the provinces of Khuzestan, Western and Eastern Azerbaijan, Khorassan-é-Razavi, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Bouhr, Ilam and Hormozgan are classified "red" according to the risk scale established by the authorities. Those of Tehran, Fars, Isfahan, Mazandaran, Hamadan, Zanjan, Sistan-Baluchistan, Alborz and Lorestan are on the alert, she added.