Shops reopen as Iran passes 50,000 coronavirus deaths

Iran eased restrictions with the reopening of shops in most of its cities on Saturday, as the country exceeded 50,000 coronavirus-related deaths, reported EFE-EPA.

Despite the grim milestone, businesses were allowed to reopen after a slight drop in new infections as a result of the restrictions imposed over recent weeks.

Over the past 24 hours, 321 people died from Covid-19, bringing the death toll since the first case was detected in the Persian country in February to 50,016.

Iran registered 12,151 new cases over the past 24 hours, for a total 1,028,986 infections.

These figures show a slow but steady improvement over the past week compared to last month, when Iran reported a record of 486 deaths on 16 November and 14,051 fresh cases on November 27.

The decrease in the new cases is a result of the closure on November 21 for two weeks of non-essential stores and services in high-risk cities, among other measures.

This reduced the cities placed under the maximum health alert from 160 to 64, where the non-essential stores remain closed.

But in the rest of the country's urban centers – including the capital Tehran - shopping centers, bazaars, pastry shops, real estate agencies and restaurants, among others, reopened on Saturday.

"Restaurant owners can provide services to their customers at a third of the capacity," until 11 December, the head of the Tehran Chamber of Trade Unions, Qasem Nude Farahani, said according to the state-run IRNA news agency.

Opening hours have been extended by two hours until 8pm starting Saturday, Farahani added.

The authorities decided to extend the partial curfew – between 9pm and 4am – to include 278 instead of 160 cities including those that have seen an improvement in infection rates.

This measure aims to prevent families gatherings in the colder autumn nights, which Deputy Health Minister Ali Reza Raisi says account for 51 percent of cases.

Traveling by car between cities is still banned with the infractions being punishable by fines.