Iranian community mulls options as COVID-19 threatens New Year plans

Members of Ottawa's Iranian community are considering cancelling Persian New Year events after newly confirmed coronavirus cases in Canada have been traced to travellers fromIran.

• Travellers from Iran asked to self-isolate for 14 days after arriving in Canada

"I'm honestly considering all of the options about whether I should have the events," said Shahriar Ayoubzadeh, owner of Digital Zone Canada, which plans an annual bazaar to ring inPersian New Year, or Nowruz.

The community is concerned.- Shahriar Ayoubzadeh

The celebration includes dinner parties and a fire-jumping event to welcome the start of spring.

"We do serve food. It's public," said Ayoubzadeh, adding he received between 10 and 15 calls from worried participants on Monday alone.

"The community is concerned," he said.

Ayoubzadeh said the bazaar, scheduled to take place at the Infinity Convention Centre on March 21, can attract 3,000 people. He's planning to make a final decision this week.

Meeting with OPH

Iranian community leaders met with Ottawa Public Health (OPH) on Monday to discuss the situation, said Mehdi Mahdavi, president of the Iranian Arts & Cultural Society of Ottawa.

"They provided feedback for us how to plan Plan B if things go seriously the wrong direction," Mahdavi said."The risk level is very low. We don't have any infection in the city."

He saidso far, OPH has indicated itshould be OK to carry on with the Persian New Year festivities.

Smaller events already called off

Despite the fact that no cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Ottawa, Mahdavi said many of the community's smaller events have already been called off.

"Anything that isn't heavily financially affected, they've already been cancelled," he said.

As part of the community's strategy to minimize risk, they've begun translating travel advisories to help people who can't read or speak English fluently. That includes advice about voluntary quarantine for people returning from Iran.

Mahdavi said many community members have already cancelled trips to Iran.