Iran official running anti-coronavirus task force has virus
A spokesman for Iran's Health Ministry says the top of the country's counter-coronavirus taskforce has tested positive for the virus.
The announcement on Tuesday comes a day after Iraj Harirchi gave a news conference with journalists in Tehran about the virus.
On Monday, Harirchi have been sweating and looked uncomfortable during the conference.
On Tuesday, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour confirmed Harirchi had the virus.
The announcement comes as countries over the Mideast say they've had confirmed cases of the virus that link back again to Iran, which for days denied getting the virus.
The United Arab Emirates on Tuesday banned all flights to and from Iran over the outbreak of the brand new coronavirus, only a day following its spread from the Islamic Republic was announced across multiple Mideast nations. Iran meanwhile raised the state death toll from the virus to 15 killed amid 95 confirmed infections.
The UAE, home to long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, remains an integral international transit route for Iran's 80 million people. The flight ban, that may last at least weekly, shows the growing concern over the spread of the virus in Iran amid worries the outbreak could be larger than what authorities there now acknowledge.
The Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority made the announcement via the country's state-run WAM news agency, just hours after Dubai International Airport, the world's busiest for international travel, said there would be restrictions on flights there.
"All passenger and cargo aircraft planing a trip to and from Iran will be suspended for an interval of one week, and may be up for extension," the authority said. "The decision is a precautionary measure undertaken by the UAE to ensure strict monitoring and prevention of the spread of the brand new coronavirus."
Emirates, the government-owned carrier located in Dubai, flies daily to Tehran. Its low-cost sister airline, FlyDubai, flies to multiple Iranian cities, as does the Sharjah-based low-cost carrier Air Arabia.
The announcement came after Bahrain said it could suspend all flights from Dubai and Sharjah, a neighboring UAE emirate that's home to Air Arabia, for 48 hours.
Bahrain's Health Ministry on Tuesday raised the quantity of infected cases from the brand new virus to eight, saying that had traveled from Iran via Dubai. Four of these have been recognized as Saudi nationals. The cases were confirmed after arrival to Bahrain during screenings at the airport, and just before the suspension on flights to Dubai and Sharjah, according to Bahrain's official news agency.
Dubai has been screening passengers on incoming flights from China, where the outbreak commenced in December. Long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad are among the few international airlines still flying to Beijing. However, the outbreak in Iran only became public in recent days.
The novel coronavirus has infected more than 80,000 persons globally, triggering around 2,700 deaths, mainly in China. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, discussing its origin late this past year and the coronavirus that triggers it.
Iran's government said Tuesday that 15 persons had died nationwide from the brand new coronavirus, rejecting claims of a higher death toll of 50 by a lawmaker from metropolis of Qom that has been at the epicenter of the virus in the country. The conflicting reports raised questions about the Iranian government's transparency concerning the scale of the outbreak.
The new death toll originated from Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour during an interview with Iranian state television. He said there have been 95 confirmed cases of the virus in Iran, with many associated with Qom, a significant Shiite religious center where other cases have emerged.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sought to reassure the country in a speech on Tuesday, calling the brand new coronavirus an "uninvited and inauspicious passenger."
"We are certain to get through corona," Rouhani said. "We are certain to get through the virus."
Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq and Oman also announced their first cases of the virus on Monday and linked them to visit with Iran.
The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, has reported 13 cases of the new virus. The majority of those were linked to Chinese travel.
Also Tuesday, Kuwait raised the amount of its infected cases to eight, in line with the state-run KUNA news agency, after earlier raising the quantity to five. It said the three latest cases involved Kuwaiti citizens just back from Iran, without giving additional information. The five previously reported cases were passengers returning on a flight from the Iranian city of Mashhad, where Iran's government hasn't yet announced an individual case of the virus.
Kuwait had halted transport links with Iran over the weekend and said it was evacuating its citizens from Iran.
Meanwhile, Iraq's Health Ministry said four new cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in the northern province of Kirkuk. It said the afflicted were members of an Iraqi family who had returned from a recently available trip to Iran. Iraq announced the discovery of the first coronavirus case in the united states on Monday in the Shiite Muslim holy city of Najaf.
Iraq had earlier closed its border with Iran to Iranian nationals but apparently Iraqis can still cross the boundary.
Also Tuesday, a Turkish Airlines flight from Tehran to Istanbul landed in Ankara with 17 passengers suspected of experiencing coronavirus, including some who had been to the Iranian city of Qom, Turkey's CNN-Turk broadcaster reported. The passengers were to be quarantined at an Ankara hospital that had previously quarantined Turks returning from China's Hubei province. Turkish Airlines has temporarily suspended most flights with Iran, aside from those with Tehran.
Turkey's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said the Turks up to speed were being repatriated as a result of outbreak in Iran. All 132 passengers and crew up to speed would be quarantined for two weeks at the same hospital where Turkish citizens returning from China have been quarantined. "We are engaged in the utmost effort possible to safeguard our country out of this ilness," Koca said.
In Pakistan, about 100 pilgrims, mostly minority Pakistani Shiites, have already been quarantined at a government building after returning from Iran, officials said Tuesday. The pilgrims had returned before Pakistan on Saturday closed its border with Iran at the crossing in the city of Taftan in southwestern Baluchistan province.
More than 7,000 Pakistani pilgrims remain still in Iran where health authorities must declare them free from the coronavirus before they are able to go home. Pakistan last week suspended flight businesses with China, where thousands of Pakistanis have already been stranded since the infectious spread there. Islamabad has no immediate plans to evacuate Pakistani citizens from China.
