1st Vice President Esh’aq Jahangiri, having recovered from a “cold”, at a Cabinet meeting, Tehran, Iran, March 15, 2020

Despite almost 14,000 confirmed Coronavirus cases in Iran, the Rouhani Government is refusing quarantines — even as a poll shows almost 90% of Iranians in support of the measure.

The survey by ISPA found almost 93% of women and more than 85% of men favoring the restrictions on movement.

But President Hassan Rouhani insisted on Sunday, “No such thing as quarantine exists in Iran and no local governors are allowed to make decisions about lockdowns.”

He denied rumors of a quarantine in the capital Tehran:

We have no quarantine whatsoever in Tehran or in some cities, some shops, or some businesses. There is no such thing; neither today nor during the Nowruz holidays [from later this week] or after that.

The President’s statement came as the Health Ministry raised the death toll to 724 from 611, with cases rising to 13,938 from 12,729.

Defying Rouhani’s warning not to overrule the Government and its National Task Force, the Governor General of Khuzestan banned the arrival and departure of vehicles.

Soon after the start of the outbreak last month, Rouhani — echoing the Supreme Leader’s depiction of Coronavirus as a “Western plot” — rejected quarantines, saying they would fulfil a “foreign conspiracy” to disrupt Iran’s economy and society.

The President did advise, during a meeting of the Government’s Economic Headquarters and private sector officials, “The people should stay home as much as possible. They should not gather together and everything should be according to hygienic protocols.”

He said there will be a three-month tax break as he urged the private sector to provide necessary equipment and supplies.

1st Vice President Returns; Assembly of Experts Member Dies

First Vice President Esh’aq Jahangiri returned to Cabinet on Sunday, after a two-week quarantine.

Multiple reports said Jahangiri tested positive for the virus, but his office maintained that he had a negative result and was recovering from a cold.

A member of the Assembly of Experts, which chooses and nominally supervises the Supreme Leader, died on Sunday.

Ayatollah Sayed Hashim Bathayi was in a special care unit of a hospital in Qom.

Victims of the virus include two MPs, an advisor to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s former Ambassador to the Vatican, a Revolutionary Guards commander, and two members of the Expediency Council, which advises the Supreme Leader.

Two senior aides to the Supreme Leader, including his foreign policy specialist Ali Akbar Velayati; Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, two other Ministers, and five MPS are among the ill.