Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, has become the latest top official to test positive for coronavirus.
According to some media reports, is being treated at home.
Besides her, Iraj Harirchi, Deputy Health Minister, and Mojtaba Zolnour a lawmaker representing Qom, the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis in Iran, have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Interfax.
The death toll in Iran from coronavirus had reportedly risen to 26, by far the highest number outside China.
Meanwhile, amid the outbreak of coronavirus in the globe, Iranians have called on the international community to remove sanctions on medicine to take steps for combating the disease in the country, according to IRNA.
Earlier, an Iranian media activist Abolfazl Fateh in a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General and WHO Director-General called for lifting all medical sanctions now to combat coronavirus in Iran.
Iran has temporarily shut down schools, universities, and other education centers, and canceled all the public gatherings, like concerts and sporting events, to help curb the disease.
WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said all nations should prepare themselves for potential pandemic, as nations aside from China now account for three-quarters of new infections.
"This virus has pandemic potential," D. Ghebreyesus revealed in Geneva on February 27. About 12 countries reported their first virus cases in past 24 hours.
According to WHO, outside China the virus has spread to a further 46 countries, where about 3,700 cases and 57 deaths have been reported so far.
