Iran, like wider Mideast, relies on deliveries amid pandemic

For some USD 15 a day, deliverymen don masks and gloves in Iran's capital to zip across its pandemic-subdued streets to drop off groceries and food for those sheltering at home from the virus.

Like the wider Mideast, from skyscraper-studded Dubai to the narrow alleyways of Cairo, Iranians in cities rely on delivery for many of their daily supplies amid one of the world's worst outbreaks of the coronavirus.

Those deliveries, coming as Muslims prepare for the holy fasting month of Ramadan, take on new importance for those receiving the goods and offer new risks for the couriers trying to make a living.

I need a source of income and I take all the risks," 23-year-old deliveryman Yaghoub Moradi said.

Iran already struggles under severe U.S. sanctions blocking the sale of its crude oil abroad, measures imposed after President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

That has led to a monthslong period of increased tensions that have persisted through the pandemic.

Now, the virus is striking the service sector and other industries that escaped the wrath of sanctions, economic analyst Mehdiyar Mostafaei told The Associated Press.

For a nation already struggling with unemployment, that's forced many into the gray market of gypsy cabs and on-demand delivery, using their own vehicles.

Shahin Daryani, a supermarket owner, told the AP that much of his sales come from phone orders. The demand has seen him hire four new couriers.

My customers and I prefer to not see each other in the supermarket, Daryani said. If they stay at home, it could be great, even for me. No contact, no virus outbreak.

Iran on Monday reopened intercity highways and major shopping centers to stimulate its sanctions-choked economy, gambling that it has brought under control its coronavirus outbreak, even as some fear it could lead to a second wave of infections.

That fear has led those who can stay inside to rely on deliveries.

With so many staying home, the internet taxi service Snapp, the Iranian app that resembles Uber, has seen a drop off in demand.

Before the Nowruz (the Persian New Year), some 800,000 were active in (using) Snapp, but the virus cut 70 per cent of them," Snapp CEO Jhubin Alaghband told the AP.

The pandemic, however, has seen a spike in demand for SnappFood, which organizes grocery store deliveries.

Its orders have doubled to some 20,000 a day, Alaghband said.

We were lucky that there was so much request for SnappFood in this critical situation, he said.

But the risk remains for couriers like Saeed Vatanparast.

He said he worried while on his deliveries about contracting the virus by handling customers' money or using his portable debit card machine to take payments.

I'm often am face to face with the customers and I can feel their breath," he said. "God knows if they have the virus I can contract it and I can take the virus with me to other homes and customers.