The office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that he will skip his annual public address on the first day of the Persian new year, or Nowruz, which falls on March 20. In a statement, Khamenei’s office cited health authorities who have advised against travel and public gatherings to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Khamenei has traditionally given his Nowruz addresses to large crowds of Shiite supporters at the shrine of Imam Reza in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The decision signaled the growing seriousness of the situation in the eyes of Khamenei, who initially underestimated the “so-called virus.”