What Are the Consequences When the New Year Eve in Iran Coincides With COVID-19?
subject: Iran, covid-19, SARS-CoV-2, Nowruz
description: On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the pandemic outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), due to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which began in December 2019 in Wuhan, China (1). Iran was the 25th country affected by COVID-19. According to the Iranian Ministry of Health, every 12 minutes, one person dies in Iran because of COVID-19. After a 3.5-fold and 12.9-fold increase in the number of COVID-19 affected people and deaths, respectively in the second two weeks compared with the first two weeks after the official announcement of COVID-19 on February 19, 2020, in Iran (2), the coincidence of this epidemic with the celebration of New Year Eve, may lead to a human and health catastrophe in Iran. Nowruz (New Year Eve) is the first day of the Iranian New Year on March 20 (or the previous or following day). It marks the beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and takes place with celebrations. Before the start of the New Year in Iran on March 20, all 31 provinces were affected by COVID-19, with some provinces including Qom, Tehran, Guilan reporting the highest prevalence rates (2). The preparations for the celebration of New Yearchr('39')s Eve in Iran include shopping in crowded markets and beginning of the New Year Eve holiday in Iran (6 official days for administrations and 13 days for schools and universities) is along with traveling, that accelerates human-to-human transmission, effectively spreading SARS-CoV-2 (3). Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 during Nowruz, abroad travel had decreased, but domestic travel in Iran had not stopped. Despite the closing of museums and recreation centers, and repeated official announcements that no amenities will be offered, Nowruz trips continued. Besides domestic tourism attractions in Iran as a four-season country, many people in big cities are returned to their villages and hometowns for the New Yearchr('39')s holiday to visit their parents or grandparents. …
creator: Gholamreza Farnoosh, Kazem Hassanpour, Taleb Badri, Seyed Reza Hosseini Zijoud
source: Research in Molecular Medicine
publisher: Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and Health Services
date: 2020
coverage: Medicine (General)