Five days after the complete shutdown of the Internet in Iran by the government in response to the country-wide protests, the Islamic Republic has reconnected the internet in some areas in the country.

The IRGC’s Fars News announced on Thursday that the Internet is gradually being reconnected.

According to domestic media, the Supreme Security Council has ordered the gradual reconnection. Limited access has been reported in several provinces including Hormozgan, Kermanshah, Markazi, Khorasan Razavi, Qom, East Azerbaijan, Hamedan, Bushehr, and parts of Tehran.

NetBlocks, the non-profit international internet watchdog that previously had reported Iran’s Internet access dropping to 5 percent of its average on Saturday, on Thursday reported that this amount has reached 10 percent.

Some universities have also reported regaining access to the Internet, including Amir Kabir, Sharif, Allameh Tabatabaei, Tehran, Science and Technology, Khajeh Nasir, and Shahid Beheshti.

As more citizens regain access to the internet, new reports of mass arrests of political, civil, and student activists have come out.

The representative of the leader of the Islamic Republic in IRGC has criticized the partial reconnection of the Internet and said: “Why should the Internet be open without any control over it, even though the leader has emphasized the issue of national Internet.”

NetBlocks has estimated that the Internet shutdown has cost Iran’s economy $369 million a day.