Iran to clear streets, check everyone for COVID-19

Iranian forces will clear the streets nationwide within 24 hours and all citizens will be checked for the new coronavirus in a bid to halt its spread, the military said Friday.

A newly formed commission has been charged with overseeing the “emptying of shops, streets and roads” within that timeframe, armed forces chief of staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri said.

“During the next 10 days, the entire Iranian nation will be monitored once through cyberspace, by phone and, if necessary, in person, and those suspected of being ill will be fully identified.”

The measures were brought into force after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the armed forces to lead the battle against the new coronavirus.

Iran announced on Friday that the new coronavirus has claimed another 85 lives, the highest single-day death toll in one of the world’s worst affected countries.

“Sadly, 85 people infected with the COVID-19 disease have died in the past 24 hours”, bringing to 514 the overall number of deaths in Iran, health ministry spokesperson Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference.

Iran’s security forces will empty the streets of its cities in the next 24 hours in a drive to fight the spread of the new coronavirus, state television reported on Friday.

Iran is one of the countries worst affected by the pandemic outside China, with a combined death toll of 514 by Friday, and 11,364 diagnosed infections.

“Our law enforcement and security committees, along with the interior ministry and provincial governors, will be clearing shops, streets and roads … This will take place in the next 24 hours,” state TV cited Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri as saying at a meeting about the virus.