Iran was the first country in the Middle East to declare deaths related to the virus. The head of public relations at the country’s health ministry, Kianush Jahanpur, wrote in a tweet that most of the infections came from Qom, 80 miles south of the capital, Tehran. Officials also confirmed cases in Tehran, and in the northern city of Rasht.
Already, cases of travelers from Iran testing positive for the virus have turned up in Canada and Lebanon.
As Iran holds parliamentary elections this weekend, many voters in Qom lined up in front of voting stations wearing masks, according to videos from Iranian news agencies.
Conflicting news reports emerged on Saturday about the mayor of a district of Tehran, who was said to have been hospitalized with coronavirus symptoms on Friday. But the semiofficial news agency Fars later denied that the mayor, Morteza Rahmanzadeh, had been hospitalized, saying he was in good health.
The total number of infections in China rose above 76,000 on Saturday. Spikes in infections were also reported in the United States, which now has 34 cases, with more expected, and Italy, which has 17 and has ordered mandatory quarantine measures.
“The cases that we see in the rest of the world, although the numbers are small, but not linked to Wuhan or China, it’s very worrisome,” Dr. Tedros said on Friday. “These dots are actually very concerning.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/22/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html
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