Iran closes businesses, limits travel amid coronavirus surge

What they're saying: “If the current trend continues, we will have a winter much more difficult than the fall,” Health Ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari said, according to Al Jazeera.

• “We hope that through an increase in people refraining from risky behaviors, improving management, and better cooperation of different entities we can witness a halt to the outbreaks in the country.”

Details: The new lockdown measures include shuttering most businesses, shops, malls and restaurants in Iran’s largest cities of Mashhad, Isfahan and Shiraz, per AP.

• Iranian authorities designated hundreds of towns and cities as hotspots because these urban centers have the highest daily positive coronavirus test results.
• Officials encouraged people to "avoid gatherings and reduce traffic" to successfully implement these restrictions, adding there would be a 9 p.m. daily curfew.
• Schools and universities will shift to virtual learning.

• Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the government plans to give 30 million people subsidies through the end of the year "[s]ince businesses and economic activities will be closed for two weeks."
• He also announced that 100,000 tests will be performed daily.

The big picture: Iran initially downplayed the outbreak, but last week, the Rouhani declared a "nationwide mobilization" to confront the pandemic.

• The government implemented a lockdown on Tehran last month, but has previously resisted extensive restrictions beyond the capital, hoping not to worsen the financial crisis in the country, the Wall Street Journal notes.