Iran minister tests positive after offering reassurance
IRAN’S deputy health minister has tested positive for coronavirus, just hours after he appeared on television to insist the Iranian government had the outbreak under control.
Iraj Harirchi was seen coughing and appeared to be sweating during a televised press conference yesterday as he commented on a rising number of cases and related deaths in the Islamic republic.
Iranians were yesterday urged to stay at home as the official number of infections rose to 95 – with at least 15 related deaths – amid fears that the full extent of the outbreak could be much higher.
In the press conference, Mr Harirchi told reporters there could be up to 900 additional “suspected cases”, before it emerged that he was himself infected. A second Iranian parliamentarian yesterday also announced he had contracted the virus.
“I don’t have a lot of hope of continuing life in this world,” wrote Mahmoud Sadeghi, a Tehran MP, on Twitter.
The spread to Iranian politicians came after the government denied trying to cover up the full extent of the outbreak, which is centred around the religious city of Qom, near Tehran.
Among the latest confirmed deaths were two elderly women in the northern province of Alborz and another patient in the central province of Markazi, state news agency IRNA said.
As public events and schools, universities and sports centres were closed, the WHO announced that it would provide Iran with extra testing kits. The United Arab Emirates yesterday said it was suspending all flights to and from Iran, following the approach taken by Kuwait, Oman and Iraq.