Iran's deputy health minister, who played down coronavirus fears only a day earlier, tests positive for the illness himself - Iranian authorities
Only a day earlier, a coughing and heavily sweating Iraj Harirchi, the country's deputy health minister, said at a televised news conference in Tehran that"the situation is almost stable in the country."
The acknowledgement of Harirchi's illness underscores a growing crisis of confidence felt by many in Iran after nationwide economic protests, a US drone strike killing a top Iranian general and Iran accidentally shooting down a commercial jetliner and insisting for days that it hadn't. "I wanted to tell you that, rest assured that with efforts of your servants at the Health Ministry ... and backed by you people, the government and all elements of the establishment, we will be victorious in our combat against this virus within the next few weeks," Harirchi said.
The Health Ministry spokesman suggested it may take at least until Nowruz, the Persian New Year on March 20, for Iran to reach a point where the virus was contained. He added that a more "pessimistic" assessment suggested Iran would contain it by late April.A prominent pro-reform lawmaker, Mamoud Sadeghi of Tehran, also said in a tweet that he tested positive for the virus.
"What do you have to say about those buried in Qom cemetery?" tweeted lawmaker Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani. “Practitioners in hospitals write ‘respiratory problems’ as the cause of death. But you know that they are from those quarantined for corona.” The UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority said it would halt all flights to and from Iran. The announcement came hours after busy Dubai International Airport said there would be restrictions on flights there.
The passengers, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution, said authorities let them walk off one at a time while being monitored with a thermal scanner.
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