Coronavirus Outbreak: Top adviser to Iran's Ali Khamenei quarantined with virus symptoms

Amid Coronavirus outbreak across globe, a key visor to Iran's supreme leer has been placed in quarantine after experiencing "mild symptoms", an Iranian news ncy reported on Thursday. It quoted a spokesman at Tehran's Massih Danechvari hospital for its report.

Ali Akbar Velayati, who vises supreme leer Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on foreign policy, was "quarantined after having experienced mild symptoms of coronavirus," ncy said. hospital, of which Velayati, a pediatrician by profession, is he, is main center for coronavirus patients.

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"Yesterday (Wednesday) afteron, when light symptoms appeared, doctors prescribed a test" for 74-year-old Velayati, Tasnim said. He was later placed in isolation at his home and given medicine, ncy ded without saying wher Velayati h tested positive for virus. But Tasnim said that Velayati's "general health is improving".

Velayati is a close viser to Khamenei and served as Iran's foreign minister from 1981-1997. Several politicians and officials both sitting and former have been infected, with some dying from illness. On March 3, one of visors to Supreme Leer Ali Khamenei died after contracting lethal virus.

Iran's senior officials affected

With Coronavirus hitting high-ranking levels of Iranian government, it was reported that Iran's senior vice president and two or cabinet members were contracted for virus. Iran's Minister of Culture Herit, handicrafts and tourism and Minister of industry, mines, and business were among senior officials who exuded symptoms. 

Iran said on Thursday that it h asked for an emergency 5 billion US dollar loan from International Monetary Fund to help fight spre of a new virus that's swept across country, infecting more than 10,000 people and killing hundreds. 
gravity of situation in Iran came to light after it was reported on Saturday that Coronavirus burial pits in country are apparently so vast that y were visible from . At Behesht-e Masoumeh complex in Qom, situated about 130km south of Tehran, excavation of a new section of graveyard started as early as February 21, and it rapidly expanded as virus spre. By end of month, two vast trenches measuring about 100m in length were visible at site from .

(With ncy inputs) 

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