TEHRAN: Iran said Friday the new coronavirus has killed 124 people amid 4,747 confirmed cases in the Islamic Republic as authorities warned they may use “force” to limit travel between cities.
Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour offered the figures at a televised news conference. He did not elaborate on the threat to use force, though he acknowledged the virus now was in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.
The threat may be to stop people from using the closed schools and universities as an excuse to go to the Caspian Sea and other Iranian vacation spots. Semiofficial news agencies in Iran posted images of long lines of people trying to reach the Caspian coast from Tehran on Friday despite authorities earlier telling people to remain in their cities.
The statements come as two government figures have died from the virus, including a former adviser to the foreign minister and the director of the Interpretation center in hard-hit Qom, a Shiite holy city
Iran on Thursday announced it would put checkpoints in place to limit travel between major cities, hoping to stem the spread of the virus.
Friday prayers were canceled across its major cities. Elsewhere in the region, Iraq canceled Friday prayers in Karbala, where a weekly sermon is delivered on behalf of the country’s top Shiite cleric. Authorities in the United Arab Emirates meanwhile limited prayers to two verses of the Quran so they lasted no longer than 10 minutes, over concerns about the virus.
More than 4,990 cases of the illness COVID-19 have been confirmed across the Middle East. Iran and Italy have the world’s highest death tolls outside of China.
In Tehran firefighters sprayed disinfectant on an 18-kilometer (11-mile) length of Tehran’s famous Valiasr Avenue, some from firetrucks and others walking along its sidewalks, spraying ATMs and storefronts.
“It would be great if they did it every day,” grocery store owner Reza Razaienejad said after the firefighters sprayed outside his shop. “It should not be just a one-time thing and should be done frequently, especially in places like here where movement and traffic happens a lot.”
But Iran offered some hope as well. Authorities reported a woman infected with the virus gave birth to a girl late Thursday night in Qom.
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Iranian adviser dies of the virus
An adviser to Iran’s foreign minister who took part in the 1979 US embassy hostage crisis has died from the new virus, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Hossein Sheikholeslam, a veteran and revolutionary diplomat died late Thursday, IRNA said.
Before his death Sheikholeslam was adviser to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
A former ambassador to Syria, he also served as deputy foreign minister from 1981 to 1997.
Sheikholeslam was also one of the students involved in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
That year, and less than nine months after the toppling of the American-backed shah, Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage.
This prompted Washington to sever diplomatic ties with Iran in 1980.
The hostages were freed in January 1981, after 444 days in captivity.
The novel coronavirus has also claimed the lives of other high-profile Iranian officials, including Mohammad Mirmohammadi of the Expediency Council which advises supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Other deaths linked to the virus include Mohammad Ali Ramezani, an MP from Gilan, one of the worst-hit provinces in the country.
Tehran MP Fatemeh Rahbar is currently in a coma after being infected, according to ISNA news agency.
