LONDON: The UK government is to withdraw staff from its embassy in Iran amid growing concerns over the coronavirus outbreak.
The news comes as the number of confirmed cases in Iran has increased dramatically, with official figures reporting 77 deaths and 2,336 infections.
However, independent epidemiologists have cast doubt on Iran’s figures, suggesting the true number could be significantly higher.
Essential staff at the British Embassy in Tehran will remain in place for the foreseeable future, but all non-essential staff and dependents are being repatriated as a security measure, according to the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
“In the event that the situation deteriorates further, the ability of the British Embassy to provide assistance to British nationals from within Iran may be limited,” the FCO said in a statement.
Iran is the center of the largest single outbreak of coronavirus in the Middle East, and has also been linked as the source of further outbreaks in Canada, Norway and New Zealand, mostly from people traveling from the city of Qom, a popular pilgrimage site in Shiite Islam.
BBC Persia, citing local hospital sources, has reported that as many as 210 people in Iran may have died from the virus so far.
Meanwhile, six epidemiologists based in Canada, using a mathematical model to estimate the spread of the virus in Iran, have suggested that given the international reach of the Iranian outbreak, there could be more than 18,000 cases there. The study has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Co-author Isaac Bogoch said: “When a country exports cases to other destinations it’s very likely that the burden of infection in this country is significant.”
Coronavirus has affected people across all levels of Iranian society, with Deputy Parliament Speaker Abdolreza Mesri confirming on Tuesday that 23 MPs (8 percent of the total) are among those to have fallen ill, including Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi.
The outbreak has come at a particularly difficult time for Iran, which was already battling nationwide anti-government protests and a deepening economic crisis exacerbated by US sanctions.
