Iranians’ demands for quarantine fall on deaf ears
Iran’s president has rejected calls for quarantine against the coronavirus with no explanation, but his reasoning seems to be related to the economic devastation following the US sanctions.
As Iranians were preparing to put behind them a bitter year full of sorrowful events, the coronavirus appeared as an unexpected and unwanted guest, destroying their plans to celebrate the Persian new year on March 21.
Though the Iranian public expects the government to place cities with high concentrations of coronavirus cases under quarantine, President Hassan Rouhani has refrained from doing so. His administration has not said a word about the reasoning behind the decision, but US economic sanctions seem to be playing a central role in preventing the Iranian government from taking the most obvious measure to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
