15 million students return to school in 🇮🇷

Authorities in Iran reopened the country's schools for 15 million students on Saturday after seven months of closure due to the cholera epidemic.

"This year, we have faced difficult challenges in taking care of our students," President Hassan Rouhani said in a Reuters report.

Rouhani made the remarks while leading the opening of online schools live on national television.

But the president said parents did not have to send their children to school.

The country's media reported that religious teachers' training schools were also open to 50,000 students.

Many health experts have expressed concern about the opening of schools and universities in the country, which is one of the worst hit by the cholera epidemic in the Middle East.

A total of 382,772 people have been confirmed infected in Iran, while 22,044 of them have died.