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An Italian Finance guard (Guardia di Finanza) conducts control and gives indications to drivers at a check-point at the entrance of the small town of Zorlesco, southeast of Milan, on February 24, 2020.

MIGUEL MEDINA

Italy's government on Wednesday announced it will temporarily close the nation's schools and universities due to the coronavirus outbreak.

State-run RAI radio and the ANSA and LaPresse news agencies reported earlier Wednesday that Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte had agreed on the closure during a Cabinet meeting.Education Minister Lucia Azzolina later said the school closures would be in effect from March 5 through March 15.

Earlier Wednesday, Italy had the dubious honor of being the worst-affected country from the coronavirus outside Asia, having overtaken Iran in terms of the number of deaths and infections from the virus.

The death toll in Italy jumped to 79 on Tuesday, up from an official total of 52 on Monday. As of Wednesday morning, there are 2,502 cases of the virus in Italy, according to Italian media reports that are updated ahead of the daily official count, published by Italy's Civil Protection Agency every evening.

Italy's coronavirus numbers had surpassed Iran's official infection count until the Islamic Republic released its latest official infection and death count. On Wednesday, it announced that 92 people had died from the coronavirus and 2,922 had been infected.There is speculation over the accuracy of Iran's tally of the epidemic.

The outbreak of the coronavirus has centered on Italy's wealthy northern regions of Lombardy (with 1,520 cases), Veneto (307 cases) and Emilia-Romagna (420 cases). But it has spread throughout the country and now only one out of Italy's 20 regions, Valle D'Aosta, is yet to record a case.

Italy's health authorities said Tuesday that they may set up a new quarantine area, a so-called red zone, to try to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters reported.

"None of us can be sure about the future evolution of the disease. This is an important week to understand what will happen," Angelo Borrelli, head of the Civil Protection Agency, told a news conference Tuesday. A new quarantined area could be declared around the city of Bergamo, northeast of Milan, to try to stem a sharp rise in cases there.

Italy's government has already set up red zones in Lombardy and Veneto, in which there are a combined 11 towns quarantined with no inhabitants allowed to leave. Public life has been severely affected in those zones, as well as in "yellow zones" where free movement is allowed but schools, sports venues, and many bars and restaurants are closed.

Recommendations have also reportedly been sent to Italy's Ministry of Health for all Italians, not just those in the most-affected areas, saying that elderly people should stay at home, and that the public should avoid crowded places with no handshaking.

Italy's hospitals and particularly those in the north are stretched. One ambulance driver for hospitals in Codogno and Lodi, both in the "red zone" in Lombardy, told La Repubblica newspaper that the authorities were waiting to see if the epidemic had passed or whether "the emergency is still at the beginning." "Hours (will be) decisive, if the infection spreads it will be hard," he said.

China is now reporting cases that have come from Italy. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the United States was screening all travelers coming on direct flights from Italy (as well as South Korea) and Hungarian carrier Wizz Air was the latest airline to cut some flights, mainly to Italy, from March 11.

There are widespread expectations that Italy's economy will enter a recession because of the outbreak. Italy, the euro zone's third-largest economy, was a problematic member of the single currency bloc even before it became one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus outside of China. Italy was previous only expected to grow a meager 0.5% in 2020.

Giovanni Di Lieto, lecturer in international business and economics at Australia's Monash University, said Italy could drag other countries down with it.

"The Italian economy will enter into recession, possibly dragging down the rest of Europe, particularly those countries whose manufacturing supply chains are most connected with Italy, such as Germany, France, Austria, and the Balkan nations," he said in a note Tuesday.

"This impact will be felt across Europe long after the coronavirus crisis will be quashed, particularly in terms of economic growth and capital investment."

CORRECTION: Italy is one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus outside of China. An earlier version misstated its status.

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Italy to close all schools and universities through March 15 as coronavirus death toll rises - CNBC

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Irans government said Monday that 12 people had died nationwide from the new coronavirus, rejecting claims of a much higher death toll by a lawmaker from the city of Qom that has been at the epicenter of the virus in the country.

The conflicting reports raised questions about the Iranian governments transparency concerning the scale of the outbreak.

Five neighboring countries reported their first cases of the virus, with those infected all having links to Iran, including direct travel from a city where authorities have not even reported a confirmed case.

Irans Health Ministry said the total number of infections have risen to 61 while deaths stood at 12. But a lawmaker from Qom, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, was quoted by the semi-official ILNA news agency as saying that the death toll was 50.

Even with the lower toll of 12, the number of deaths compared to the number of confirmed infections from the virus is higher in Iran than in any other country, including China and South Korea, where the outbreak is far more widespread.

The World Health Organization said last week that in 2% of infected cases, the virus has been fatal. In Iran, according to the Health Ministrys figures, the death toll represents nearly 20% of total infections.

There are concerns that clusters of the new coronavirus in Iran, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread.

Authorities in Iraq and Afghanistan, which closed their borders with Iran, announced their first confirmed coronavirus cases on Monday. Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman also announced their first cases. In all five countries, the infected patients had links with Iran.

Farahani, the lawmaker, said the 50 deaths in Qom date back to Feb. 13. Iran first officially reported cases of the virus and its first deaths on Feb. 19.

He did not provide supporting evidence but said more than 250 people are quarantined in Qom, which is known for its Shiite seminaries that attract students from across Iran and other countries. Schools there have been closed.

I think the performance of the administration in controlling the virus has not been successful, Farahani said, referring to the government of President Hassan Rouhani. His comments represent the most public criticism levied yet against the government for its handling of the virus, which originated in China in December.

None of the nurses have access to proper protective gear, Farahani said, adding that some health care specialists had left the city. So far, I have not seen any particular action to confront corona by the administration.

He spoke following a session in parliament in Tehran. His comments, first published by ILNA, were later carried by other news agencies in Iran.

While such harsh criticism is rare in the country, it reflects deep public mistrust of the government, particularly since a Ukrainian passenger jet was shot down by Iran on Jan. 8, killing 176 on board amid heightened tensions with the U.S. Iranian government officials at first tried to conceal the cause of the crash before acknowledging that Revolutionary Guard forces had shot it down, mistaking it for an enemy target.

Health Ministry spokesman Iraj Harirchi rejected the lawmakers comments, but said about 900 other suspected cases are being tested.

No one is qualified to discuss this sort of news at all, Harirchi said, adding that lawmakers have no access to coronavirus statistics and could be mixing figures on deaths related to other diseases like the flu with the new virus.

Mohammad Tavakoli, a representative of the health minister in Qom, said 320 people suspected to have the infection have been hospitalized, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. He added that 21 people who had been infected had recovered and were released from hospitals.

Asked about the spike in cases in Iran, WHOs emergencies program director Michael Ryan cautioned that in the first wave reported from a country, only the deaths may be being picked up and therefore are over-represented.

The virus may have been there for longer than we had previously suspected, Ryan said. Sometimes when you see an acceleration of cases and a spread from that, it doesnt necessarily represent the natural transmission dynamics of the virus.

He added that it is very much driven by the context, such as whether theres been a religious gathering.

The virus, which causes the COVID-19 illness, has infected more than 79,000 people globally, and caused more than 2,600 deaths, most of them in China.

Ian Mackay, who studies viruses at Australias University of Queensland said the latest figures reported mean that Iran could become the hot spot for seeding countries that have travel with Iran ... a source outside of China.

Travelers from Iran with the virus have been confirmed in Canada, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

The outbreak of the virus in Iran comes as its economy buckles under pressure from U.S. economic sanctions. The virus threatens to isolate Iran even further as several countries began halting flights and barring Iranians from entry.

The head of the WHO expressed concern over the virus spread in Iran, as well as in Italy where more than 200 have tested positive and five have died.

The past few weeks has demonstrated just how quickly a new virus can spread around the world and cause widespread fear and disruption, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

Ryan said a team from WHO would arrive in Iran on Tuesday.

The outbreak in Iran has centered mostly in the city of Qom, but spread rapidly in recent days as Iranians voted Friday in a parliamentary election. Many people wore masks and stocked up on hand sanitizer.

Iranian health officials have not said whether health workers in Qom who first came in contact with infected people had taken precautions. Iran also has not said how many people are quarantined overall.

To prevent the spread of the virus, schools across much of the country were closed for a second day. Soccer matches and movie screenings have been suspended. Tehrans metro, which is used by about 3 million people in the capital, and public buses are being sanitized daily.

Iran has confirmed cases in five cities, including Tehran. A local mayor in Tehran is among those quarantined.

While Iran has not reported any cases in its northeastern city of Mashhad, authorities in Kuwait on Monday said three travelers returning from there had tested positive for the virus, raising more questions about the Iranian government response.

Iraq said the virus was confirmed in a 22-year-old Iranian student in Najaf, home to Shiite seminaries and shrines. Separately, a person in Afghanistans western province of Herat who had returned from Iran tested positive for the virus.

Bahrains Health Ministry said an infected citizen who returned Friday from Iran had transited through the worlds busiest international airport in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The ministry said the person is a school bus driver, and that students are being checked and related schools will be closed for two weeks.

Oman said two of its citizens returning from Iran have the virus and are in quarantine.

Armenia also closed its border with Iran for two weeks and suspended flights between the two countries. Azerbaijan temporarily closed two border checkpoints with Iran. Georgia restricted movement of individuals to and from Iran and halted direct flights.

___

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Rahim Faiez and Tameem Akhgar in Kabul, Afghanistan; Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad; Frank Jordans in Berlin; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; Aniruddha Ghosal in New Delhi, India; and Sophiko Megrelidze in Tbilisi, Georgia, contributed.

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Iran says 12 dead from new virus, rejects higher death toll - The Associated Press

On Friday Iran held its 11th parliamentary elections since the foundation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, and the first since the Trump administration renewed sanctions on Iran and battered its economy.

The voting turnout 42.5 percent was the lowest since 1979, and a loose alliance of conservative candidates won. In Tehran, the capital, where about 75 percent of the voters chose not to vote, all 30 seats were won by the conservative candidates loyal to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Iranian electorate faces a perpetual dilemma on whether to participate or boycott the elections as the choice of candidates is limited and the Guardian Council a constitutional committee made up of six clerics and six jurists that vets the electoral candidates bars those seen as critical of the regime or deviating from its positions.

More than 7,000 candidates, most of them reformists and moderates, including 90 members of the current Iranian Parliament, were disqualified from Fridays elections by the Guardian Council for having insufficient ideological loyalty, a move that reduced voter participation.

The turnout was higher than Tehran in smaller cities, where citizens have more incentive to vote if the candidates promise better schools and hospitals, improved roads, faster internet, more ethnic inclusion and even individual patronage. As the American sanctions have debilitated the Iranian economy, greater participation in parliamentary elections offers the provinces an opportunity to bargain for a better share of the shrinking pie from Tehran.

In Tehran and other major cities, the parliamentary elections signal not only the citizens preferences for particular factions within the regime but also its legitimacy as a whole. Participation rates in the major cities fluctuate more often and reflect the political diversity of the candidates.

In the 2016 parliamentary elections, a high turnout enabled moderate reformist candidates to secure Tehrans 30 seats in the Parliament. The conservative winners in Tehran, this weekend, were led by Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air force wing, who is expected to be the speaker of the incoming Parliament. Victories like Mr. Qalibafs demonstrate that the Revolutionary Guard is ensuring its presence and domination of the Parliament as well.

Iranians who refused to vote expressed their anger and their disappointment with the Revolutionary Guards bloody crackdown on protesters in November, and its cover-up of the accidental shooting of a civilian airplane near Tehran in January. But the trouble with boycotting the elections is that it opens the doors of the Parliament for the most conservative wing of the political system.

Iranian society stands at an uncharted crossroad and the regime is bringing the apparatus of the state under the control of what it considers to be its most loyal elites, one election at a time. In a politically, economically and regionally tumultuous environment, doing so would allow an orderly transition to the next supreme leader.

The brutal response to the November protests across the country showed the will and the capacity of the security apparatus to put down unrest. And a multinational army of proxies under the banner of the Revolutionary Guards Quds Force operating from Lebanon and Syria to Iraq and Yemen, have demonstrated Tehrans will and effectiveness in defending its sphere of influence and fighting threats from hostile states to nonstate participants.

Irans constitutional design places the Islamic Republic in a win-win position. High voter participation helps legitimize the regime and a boycott invariably leads to a conservative victory. Elections also serve as a convenient device for the state to learn about and manage popular sentiments before they turn into a mass revolt.

Despite these institutional constraints, Iranian citizens have often outmaneuvered their leaders and stunned the world by using elections as a tool to coordinate nationwide social and political movements.

After the 1989 death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and with the gradual decline of revolutionary fervor, competition among Mr. Khomeinis followers provided a narrow political opportunity for Iranian citizens.

By choosing candidates who appeared furthest from the establishment, Iranians revealed their preference for radical change not only to the ruling elites but also to each other. Far from strengthening the regime, elections often turned into national protests, deepening the gap between the state and the society and further polarizing factional politics.

The student uprising in 1999 over the governments crackdown on the media and the Green Movement against what millions viewed as a rigged re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 were direct results of electoral politics and popular frustrations with the regimes suppression of the peoples struggle for civil rights.

The ruling elites managed this 30-year cycle of elections and protests through a sequence of crackdowns, concessions and more crackdowns. Disillusioned citizens sometimes boycotted elections only to return to the ballot box with vehemence.

Parliamentary elections in Iran have become a consistent predictor of relations between the state and the society. The low turnout in the 2004 parliamentary elections signaled popular disillusionment after the failure of the reform movement that started in the 1997 presidential election to protect civic rights, which led to the 2005 election of Mr. Ahmadinejad to the presidency.

The high turnout in the 2016 parliamentary elections confirmed the high approval rate of President Hassan Rouhani and the nuclear agreement he signed with the United States and other world powers, predicting his landslide re-election the following year.

The conservative victory in the recent parliamentary elections indicates that the Iranian people are disenchanted with electoral politics that deliver nothing. It sets the stage for the ascendance of a hard-line president in the 2021 election if the populations apathy persists. And the absence of public pressure and elite bargaining will determine the appointment of a possibly even more hawkish supreme leader after Ayatollah Khamenei.

Yet after this electoral cycle, Iranian voters may not easily return to the ballot box. Fridays election could be the beginning of the death of Irans limited electoral politics.

Frustrations against the political system run deep in the country. So do anxieties over external threats to the nations security and territorial integrity. It is unclear which direction Iranian society will take.

Elections in the past have laid the ground for cultural exchanges, diplomatic negotiations and a nuclear agreement between Iran and the United States. After the starkly low turnout and the conservative victory, we might be inching toward a more turbulent phase between the two countries.

Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar is an associate professor of international affairs at Texas A&M Universitys Bush School of Government and Public Service and a fellow at Rice Universitys Baker Institute for Public Policy.

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What Does the Iranian Election Tell Us? - The New York Times

ANKARA/ISTANBUL All 132 passengers and crew on a Turkish Airlines plane from Tehran will be quarantined for 14 days and tested for possible coronavirus infection at a hospital in Ankara, Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Tuesday.

The flight from Tehran was carrying Turkish nationals home after Ankara closed its border with Iran this weekend following a coronavirus outbreak there, Koca said in a written statement.

An aviation source said earlier the flight was originally due to land at Istanbul, one of the world's largest airports, but was diverted to Ankara. The Health Ministry denied this.

"A special flight was set up for Turkish citizens wishing to return to our country from Iran. Turkish citizens who come to our country from Iran with this flight will be kept under a quarantine for 14 days," Koca said.

On Tuesday, the death toll from the coronavirus in Iran rose to 16. Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk said earlier 17 passengers, including 12 from Iran's Qom region, were suspected to have the virus.

Turkey's Demiroren news agency broadcast footage showing ambulances lined up beside the plane after landing in Ankara, with several personnel wearing white protective suits on the tarmac.

Turkish Airlines said on Tuesday it had extended a cancellation of flights to Iranian cities, with the exception of Tehran, until March 10.

On Monday, the airline said it canceled flights to Mashhad, Isfahan, Tabriz and Shiraz. It also said it cut the frequency of Tehran flights to two per day.

More than 80,000 people have been infected in China since coronavirus outbreak began late last year China's death toll was 2,663 by the end of Monday. The outbreak has spread to about 29 countries and territories.

Turkish Airlines shares traded down 2% while main bluechip index was down 0.3% at 1057 GMT.

(Additioanl reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Nick Macfie)

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Turkey Says 132 on Flight From Iran to Be Quarantined - The New York Times

Irans election on Friday was a blow to moderates, a disappointment for conservative rulers and bad news for the region too. The result was largely ordained before anyone could cast a ballot. Hardliners appear to have swept the parliamentary contest taking all 30 seats in Tehran because the authorities ensured that they would. The Guardian Council, which is loosely under the control of the supreme leader, had disqualified around half of the thousands of candidates for the 290-seat body, including 90 serving members. While parliaments powers are limited, it can impede the president and shape the political environment; with a presidential race due next year, the result sets a course for conservative control of every branch of government as seen during Mahmoud Ahmadinejads grim tenure.

Yet the outcome of Fridays poll was far from the endorsement sought. Despite the supreme leaders exhortations to vote, the extension of polling hours and the anger engendered by the US assassination of Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Quds force, a usually active electorate stayed away. Turnout stood at just 42.5%, the first time it has dipped below 50% since the 1979 revolution; in Tehran it was just 25%.

Though Ayatollah Khamenei blamed Irans enemies for exaggerating the threat of the new coronavirus, it is not surprising that so many voters saw little point in participating. Not only were their candidates struck from this contest, but they have little to show for supporting them in the past. In 2013, the moderate Hassan Rouhani won the presidency pledging to end his countrys isolation and revive its economy. The resulting nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) ensured a landslide when he stood again in 2017. Yet the opposition he has faced internally, the moderates own shortcomings and, above all, the Trump administrations hostility have left the country in desperate straits. The unilateral US withdrawal from the JCPOA and its reimposition of sanctions are strangling the countrys economy: the World Bank estimates that it shrank by almost 9% last year. Inflation and unemployment have soared. Europes efforts to shore up the deal have yet to offer relief; they must continue.

The frustrations found an outlet in Novembers brutally suppressed protests the third outbreak of unrest in as many years and have only grown since then. The shooting down of a Ukrainian passenger plane, which Iran denied for days before admitting responsibility, prompted fresh protests and further exposed the rifts between and within the countrys institutions. Now a coronavirus outbreak, the deadliest outside China, is spreading in a country where the health system is already under immense strain due to sanctions. It will also deepen economic woes: on Sunday, Pakistan and Turkey announced they were closing their borders and Afghanistan said it was suspending all travel to and from the country.

Domestic incompetence and corruption have unquestionably contributed to the hopelessness that so many Iranians feel today. But it is above all the Trump administrations choices in walking out of the JCPOA, imposing punishing sanctions and assassinating General Suleimani, arguably the second most powerful man in the country after the supreme leader which have tightened the grip of hardliners and strengthened the belief that cultivating its nuclear programme and its proxies is a better bet than counting on meetings with western diplomats. A vital opportunity has been squandered, and Iranians are paying the price. Others may do so too.

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The Guardian view on Irans elections: a closing door - The Guardian