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People wearing masks walk in downtown Tehran on Sunday. Photo: Xinhua

Coronavirus: Iran death toll reportedly hits 50 as Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Iraq announce first cases

  • A report from Iran’s semi-official ILNA news agency said on Monday 50 people had died from the Covid-19 disease in the city of Qom
  • Kuwait, Bahrain Afghanistan, and Iraq also confirmed their first novel coronavirus cases, health ministries in the three countries announced

A staggering 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, Iran’s semi-official ILNA news agency reported on Monday, as Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Iraq confirmed their first cases.

The new death toll is significantly higher than the latest number of confirmed cases of infections that Iranian officials had reported just a few hours earlier and which stood at just 12 deaths out of 47 cases, according to state TV.

A lawmaker from Qom, Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani, was quoted in ILNA saying that more than 250 people are in quarantined in the city, which is a popular place of religious study for Shiites from across Iran and other countries.

He said the 50 deaths date as far back as February 13 and accused Iran’s health minister of “lying” about the outbreak. The first officially reported cases of the virus and the first deaths in the country were on February 19.

Iran rocked by ‘rapid’ coronavirus outbreak

“None of the nurses have access to proper protective gears,” Farahani told ILNA, adding that some health care specialists had left the city. “So far, I have seen any particular action to confront corona by the administration.”

Iraj Harirchi, Iran’s deputy health minister “categorically” denied the report in a news conference aired on live state television, saying this was “not the time for political confrontations”.

Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait, Bahrain, Afghanistan and Iraq also confirmed their first cases. Kuwait reported three infections and Bahrain one, adding all had come from Iran.

Afghanistan’s minister for public health, Ferozuddin Feroz, told a press conference in Kabul one of country’s three suspected cases had been confirmed in the Western province of Herat.

The Kuwaiti health ministry said in a statement posted on Twitter that tests conducted on those coming from the Iranian city of Mashhad showed there were three confirmed cases of the coronavirus Covid-19.

It said the cases were of a 53-year-old Kuwaiti man, a 61-year-old Saudi citizen and a 21-year-old stateless Arab.

“All three cases are under constant observation by the health authority,” the ministry added.

Bahrain’s health ministry also reported the country’s first Covid-19 case on Monday after a “citizen arriving from Iran was suspected of having contracted the virus based on emerging symptoms”.

The patient was transferred to a medical centre for “immediate testing”, which proved positive for the infection, the ministry added.

Do bad-taste jokes disguise Afghanistan’s outbreak anxiety?

The outbreak in Iran, which has prompted travel bans from other countries, has centred mostly on the city of Qom, but spread rapidly over the past few days to people in four other cities, including the capital, Tehran. Iranians also went to the polls on Friday for nationwide parliamentary elections, with many voters wearing masks and stocking up on hand sanitiser.

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan imposed travel and immigration restrictions on Iran.

Last week, Kuwait announced a ban on entry of all ships from the Islamic republic and enforced a ban on flights to and from the country.

Thousands of Bahraini and Kuwaiti Shiite Muslims travel to Iran frequently to visit holy sites.

Iranian state TV quoted lawmaker Asadollah Abbasi as saying that people who illegally travelled to Iran from Pakistan, Afghanistan and China were the “source” of the infection.

Fears of a coronavirus pandemic grew on Monday after sharp rises in new cases reported also in Italy, South Korea and China.

China’s death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 2,592 on Monday, after the National Health Commission reported 150 more fatalities, all but one in the epicentre of Hubei province.

Additional reporting by Reuters and Agence France-Presse

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