Four Die in Iran after Testing Positive for Coronavirus

On Friday, Kianush Jahanpour, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, confirmed deaths of four people from coronavirus in the country’s northern city of Qom, 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of the capital Tehran.

Jahanpour, also confirmed 18 new cases, including seven in the city of Qom, four in the capital Tehran and two in Gilan province.

On Wednesday, the Health Ministry confirmed first two deaths from the coronavirus in Qom, the epicenter of virus in Iran.

Alireza Wahhabzadeh said one of the two had been suffering from chemical weapons injuries suffered during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. He described the other victim as a 65-old man, without elaborating.

The news of the deaths came hours after authorities confirmed first two cases for coronavirus in Iran.

That caused an Iranian deputy health minister to visit Qom on Wednesday to supervise preparations for confronting a potential spread of the disease.

Qassem Janbabaei said the two men were from two separate neighborhoods of Qom, a city of close to one million people, adding that they had never been out of the province let alone to any foreign country.

“How they contracted coronavirus is not clear and the issue is being probed,” said the official in an interview with the IRNA news agency.

Janbabaei said a hospital in Qom had been dedicated to receive people who were suspected of having contracted the disease. The official added that a second hospital in the city was on high alert to respond to any emergency that might arise.

Some 2,236 people have died and nearly 75465 people remain affected by coronavirus which is centered in the Chinese province of Hubei.