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Iran Closes Schools, Limits Travel Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

RFE/RL

   Iran has closed all schools and adopted a series of other new measures
   as it battles the worst outbreak of coronavirus outside of China.

   Health Minister Saeed Namaki told a news conference on Thursday that
   all schools and universities will remain closed until the end of the
   Iranian calendar year on March 20, and that checkpoints will be used to
   limit travel between major cities.

   "People should not consider this as an opportunity to go traveling.
   They should stay home and take our warnings seriously," Saeed Namaki
   said at a televised press conference.

   The moves come after authorities said the death toll in Iran from
   COVID-19, the illness sparked by the coronavirus had risen to 107,
   while the number of confirmed cases had reached 3,513.

   The coronavirus has been found in almost all of Iran's provinces,
   President Hassan Rouhani said on March 4, and many experts fear the
   real toll of both the dead and the infected could be much higher.

   Friday Prayers in all provincial capitals this week have been canceled
   because of the outbreak.

   Namaki listed several measures that Iranians could take to help impede
   the spread of the coronavirus, including a reduction of the use of
   paper money.