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iraj Harirchi

Iran's deputy health minister has been diagnosed with the coronavirus

Clusters of the illness have been reported across Iran.

IRAN’S DEPUTY HEALTH minister has been infected with the coronavirus, a ministry official confirmed, amid a major outbreak in the country.

“The coronavirus test for Mr Iraj Harirchi, the deputy health minister who was on the front lines combating the coronavirus, was positive,” Alireza Vahabzadeh, a media adviser to the health minister, said in a tweet.

Harirchi coughed occasionally and appeared to be sweating during a press conference yesterday with government spokesman Ali Rabiei.

Clusters of the illness have been reported across Iran and there are concerns the new outbreaks could signal a serious new stage in the global spread of the illness.

Schools were closed for a second day, and daily sanitising of public buses and the Tehran metro, which is used by some three million people a day, was started.

In several countries that reported their first cases yesterday – Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, the infected patients had links with Iran.

Iraq and Afghanistan closed their borders with Iran in an effort to stop the further spread while Bahrain announced a 48-hour suspension of flights to and from Dubai, the world’s busiest international airport.

With reporting by PA

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