Iran to restart low risk economic activities soon

TEHRAN: Iran said Sunday it will allow "low-risk" economic activities to resume from April 11 as its daily coronavirus infection rates slowed for a fifth straight day.

"Restarting these activities does not mean we have abandoned the principle of staying at home," President Hassan Rouhani said at a meeting of Iran''s anti-coronavirus task force.

The president, whose country has been battered by US economic sanctions, did not specify what qualified as "low risk" activities but said bans would remain on schools and large gatherings.

A "gradual" return of "low-risk" economic activity will be permitted from next Saturday in the provinces and from April 18 in Tehran, Rouhani said.

The coronavirus pandemic claimed another 151 lives over the past 24 hours, raising Iran''s declared death toll to 3,603, health ministry spokesman Kianouche Jahanpour said Sunday at his daily press briefing.

He also reported 2,483 new cases of COVID-19 infection, the fifth straight day of declining numbers, compared to a record number of 3,111 infections on March 31