March 5, The Iran Project - Earlier, Qom's headquarters of Crisis management in a statement on Thursday announced the closure of all offices, schools, universities, banks on Saturday  &March 7), but later they decided to cancel it due to unknown reasons.

Since the weekend holiday in Iran is on Fridays and the next Sunday (March 8) is a religious holiday in the country on the occasion of the birthday anniversary of Imam Ali (a.s.), first Shia Imam, by initial declaring of Saturday shutdown the holy city would be closed for three consecutive days.

In the first statement, the officials of the holy city of Qom, the country's main epicenter of Coronavirus epidemic, urged people not to leave their homes because they plan to disinfect the streets and public places of the city during these days.

Moreover, speaking to state-run TV, Iran’s health minister announced the closure of universities, higher educational institutions and schools across the country by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ending on March 20, 2020), due to the spread of Covid-19 virus.

The decision comes amid fears that the virus has spread in many areas of the country, with 92 people dead and 2,922 infected cases in Iran as of late Wednesday, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health. Some 552 Iranians have recovered from the disease so far.