Iran extends coronavirus restrictions ahead of Yalda festival

Shop closures and traffic restrictions in Iran will begin earlier on Saturday in an effort to avert a resurgence of coronavirus infections and deaths as Iranians prepare for the Yalda Night winter festival, Reuters reports.

“Let’s not gather, so we don’t become fewer,” President Hassan Rouhani said in televised remarks on Saturday, urging Iranians not to hold extended family gatherings on Yalda Night, or Shab-e Yalda.

This year, the ancient winter solstice celebration falls on Sunday night. Families traditionally celebrate until the early hours of the morning, reciting poems, singing and eating nuts, dried fruits, watermelon, pomegranates and persimmon.

Shops were ordered to close two hours earlier, from 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday, deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi announced on state television. A traffic curfew was brought forward an hour to 8 pm until 4 am.

The Health Ministry said on Saturday that 175 people had died over the past 24 hours, the lowest daily death toll since Sept. 19. It said to date a total of 53,448 people had died from the coronavirus and 1,152,072 had been infected in Iran, the Middle East’s worst hit country.

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