Iran officials deny coronavirus death toll in Qom has reached 50

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iranian officials were quick on Monday to deny claims by a parliamentarian from the city of Qom at the center of coronavirus outbreak that 50 infected individuals have died. The official tally stands at 12.

Iran’s minister of health Saeed Namaki told parliament earlier on Monday that a dozen of 59-61 people who have contracted the virus have died.

Iranian state media reported the death of two more coronavirus patients on Monday evening, bringing the death toll to 14.

One patient died in the northeastern city of Mashhad while another died in the western city of Hamadan, according to IRNA.

However, ILNA news agency quotes a member of parliament for Qom as saying 50 people have died in the holy city, where nurses are treating the patients without the required equipment.

“None of the nurses have suitable clothing,” Qom MP Amir Abadi Farahani said according to the news agency. “No adequate equipment is available and preventative packages have not reached the people and in some pharmacies there are no masks.”

Farahani also claimed two children under the age of 10 have tested positive for the virus in Qom.

Ali Rabiei, the government spokesperson, rejected Farahani’s claims, telling a press conference in Tehran broadcast on national TV that Iran was behaving in a “transparent” way while dealing with the outbreak.

Rabiei said a delegation of health and foreign ministry officials is in neighboring Iraq to discuss containment and the closure of border crossings.

There is currently one recorded case of coronavirus in Iraq's Najaf.

Speaking alongside Rabiei at Monday press conference, Iraj Harirchi, the spokesperson for the ministry of health, said: “We trust our figures and we do not have any shortcomings.”

Harirchi said the government is not interested in “quarantining” a city like Qom because the method “belonged to the Second World War era."

Updated 10:16 pm

Iran officials deny coronavirus death toll in Qom has reached 50

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