“

Qassem Soleimani said. That was under Irans Shiite shah, toppled in the 1979 revolution. But even after, Iran fought off other outbreaks, and its hospitals, doctors and nurses are known as some of the best in the wider Middle East, with a network of clinics from villages to big cities. However, the system appears to be stretching at the seams, with online videos purporting to show field hospitals going up. Meanwhile, Irans Shiite 80 million people, whose sense of high risk has been dulled by years of international isolation, crowd into grocery stores and butcher shops, suspicious of anything in the state media. Nowruz, the Persian New Year, looms on Friday, a holiday when millions travel. The government repeatedly has stopped short of ordering any major travel restrictions. It hasnt explained why, but there could be worry about further angering its people or slowing down its anemic, sanctions-hurt economy. Online videos show Iranians ignoring government demands to stay home and moving instead toward the coast of the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf. Residents of hard-hit Rasht, on Irans Shiite coast, have threatened to attack out-of-towners. We expect that, God willing, we can contain the rising trend of the disease, not the disease itself, by March 26, but I say this very frankly : if the great people dont cooperate, the disease will continue to be there until late May or even in June, and turn into a huge crisis. CLICK HERE FOR MORE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE And the man who once called quarantines a thing of the past added :.