Iran Health Minister confirms 44 new coronavirus cases, death toll reaches 19

Iran has reported 44 new cases of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, as the fear of a pandemic grows with a rapid increase in the number of cases in the Middle East and Europe. Iran's Health Minister has officially confirmed 19 deaths due to the deadly virus and the total number of confirmed cases has now reached 139.

Tehran has been accused of downplaying the outbreak after an Iranian lawmaker claimed that the virus outbreak claimed 50 lives in Qom. According to semi-official news agency ISNA, Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani, an official from the holy city of Qom, had accused Iran’s Health Minister of “lying” about the outbreak.

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Farahani further claimed that more than 250 people are quarantined in Qom and the 50 deaths due to coronavirus date as far back as February 13. Iran swiftly denied the claims of a cover-up and pledged to be transparent with the figures including death toll. Speaking to a news conference aired live on state television, government spokesperson Ali Rabiei said that the administration will now announce any figures they have on the number of deaths across the country.

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Iran has higher death toll than S Korea

Several Gulf nations including Iraq, Kuwait, and Bahrain reported first cases of coronavirus and all the patients were linked to Iran. Though South Korea has reported the most number of cases outside China, the number of fatalities in Iran is the highest after China. The neighbouring countries are scrambling to heighten measures against the coronavirus outbreak by closing their borders with Iran and travel restrictions.

According to the latest report, 50 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll because of the deadly virus over 2,700. While most of the cases are from Hubei province of China and the city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, other countries, including Iran, France, Italy, and Japan have also reported deaths related to COVID-19.

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(With inputs from agencies)