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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Iran: Coronavirus Deaths Nearing 4,000

Iran is by far the Middle East country worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic and there has been speculation abroad that the real numbers of deaths and infections could be significantly higher than the official figures suggest. AFP

Iran on Tuesday reported 133 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of officially confirmed fatalities to 3,872.

In the past 24 hours, 2,089 new cases of COVID-19 infection were recorded across the country, health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said.

That brought the number of confirmed cases to 62,589, he told a televised news conference.

Jahanpour added that while 3,987 patients were in critical condition, recoveries had increased and a total of 27,039 people had left hospital.

The spokesman added that Iran had carried out 211,136 COVID-19 tests to date.

However, a member of Iran's National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce, Hamid Souri has put the number of cases in the nation of 83 million at "around 500,000", according to Reuters.

"Many people with milder symptoms have not been detected," Souri was quoted as saying.

Iran announced its first COVID-19 cases on February 19, when it said two people had died from the illness.

The country is by far the worst hit by the pandemic in the Middle East, according to official tolls released by regional states.

In an attempt to limit the spread of the disease, authorities have not confined the population but have adopted other restrictions such as closing most businesses deemed non-essential and imposing an intercity travel ban, AFP reported.

However President Hassan Rouhani announced on Sunday that the authorities had given the go-ahead for the resumption of certain economic activities from April 11.

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