As the coronavirus epidemic accelerates outside of China, at a speed that worries the WHO, in Iran, three more people have died from the disease, announced on Sunday, the spokesman of the Ministry of Health, Kianouche Jahanpour. A total of 43 people were infected in less than a week.
Iran has the highest number of deaths in a country outside the Far East. Tehran announced Sunday, February 23, the death of three patients with the new coronavirus among a total of 43 people tested positive.
The new figures bring the number of people killed by Covid-19 disease to eight, health ministry spokesman Kianouche Jahanpour said on state television.
Forty-three cases of infection in total
To contain the spread of the virus, Iran has taken drastic measures. The country announced, the day before, the closure of educational establishments in fourteen provinces, including Tehran.
Faced with this new assessment, the World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the speed at which the virus has spread in this country. “We have seen a very rapid increase (of cases) in a few days,” notes Sylvie Briand, director of the Global Preparedness for Infectious Risks department at WHO.
On a political level, the supreme leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday that the enemies of Iran had tried to dissuade voters from going to the polls during the legislative elections. They allegedly exaggerated the threat posed by the epidemic from China.
“This negative propaganda about the virus started two months ago and increased before the elections,” said Ali Khamenei.
