There are 2,336 cases of the new coronavirus in Iran, including a top emergency official and at least 23 members of parliament.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran put its armed forces on alert Tuesday to assist health officials in battling the new coronavirus that’s killed at least 77 people, an outbreak that has sickened top officials and pushed even its supreme leader into wearing disposable gloves while trying to reassure the nation.
Experts worry Iran’s percentage of deaths to infections, now around 3.3%, is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be far greater than current figures show. Meanwhile, a gloved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sought to minimize the virus while praising the doctors and nurses combating the outbreak. He urged the nation to pray.
Those sick include Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as “Sister Mary,” the English-speaking spokeswoman for the students who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the 444-day hostage crisis, state media reported. Also sick is Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirusOn Tuesday, lawmaker Abdolreza Mesri told Iranian state television’s Young Journalists Club program that 23 members of parliament had the coronavirus.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency also reported that Pirhossein Koulivand, head of the country’s emergency services, had come down with the new virus. It said he was undergoing treatment. Officials previously said they had plans for 300,000 soldiers and members of the Basij, the all-volunteer force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, to sanitize public areas, direct traffic and trace contacts that sick people had with others. The Guard also has been spraying down streets in major Iranian cities.
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