Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that the country seeks to follow up on its existing physical distancing plan with a new ‘smart distancing’ initiative to curb the outbreak of COVID-19.
Speaking during a meeting in the National Headquarters to Fight the Coronavirus on Saturday, Rouhani said that the first and second phases of the country’s physical distancing plan had attained “good achievements”.
“Currently, we are in the third phase which consists of smart distancing; its specifications have to be laid out,” he said.
Iran has set out specific guidelines restricting certain occupations and transit in and between cities as part of the physical distancing initiative to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking on Saturday, Rouhani urged different committees within the anti-coronavirus headquarters to conduct precise evaluations of the physical distancing initiative’s results for further planning.
“Various protocols have to be meticulously designed for different occupations and fields for the reopening period after becoming certain that the management of the coronavirus has reached a stable state,” he said.
“Medical protocols have to be designed in a way so that the public can be largely assured of its health and safety by adhering to them outside the house and at work,” he added.
‘Iran’s strategy fighting both sanctions and coronavirus’
Speaking to reporters in a videoconference on Saturday, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi said that “smart distancing” was based on a number of principles.
“One principle is that we are fighting both the coronavirus and sanctions; therefore economic issues have to be considered in the smart distancing strategy,” he said.