RTMon, 02 Mar 2020 17:23 UTC
© Wikimedia Commons
Seyyed Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a long-standing member of the Islamic Republic of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council, has reportedly died from a novel coronavirus infection.
He was being treated at the Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran when he succumbed to the Covid-19 infection
at the age of 71.
Mirmohammadi's mother, sister of senior cleric Ayatollah Shobeiri Zanjani, also died from a coronavirus infection on Monday.
Mirmohammadi was a member of the sixth and seventh Iranian parliaments and was appointed by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei as a member of the Expediency Discernment Council in August 2017.
Iran's former ambassador to the Vatican, Hadi Khosroshahi, died of Covid-19 last week, while the country's Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi placed himself in isolation after appearing to
sweat profusely and seeming ill while giving a press conference to assuage fears over the outbreak. He later confirmed that he had been infected with the virus.
Iran is battling shortages of medical supplies - exacerbated by US sanctions - but authorities have allocated a number of military hospitals to treat the general public and help stem the tide of infection. Meanwhile, schools, universities and sports centers have been closed and the parliament has been
shut down.
Iran has the world's second highest death toll outside of China. The country has officially announced 978 cases and 54 deaths.
At 5.5 percent, the country's death rate is more than twice the global average of two percent.
Several of Iran's neighbours have closed their borders as the virus spreads across the region. These countries include Kuwait and Bahrain, each with 50 confirmed cases, the UAE with 21, and Iraq with at least 19 cases.
Comment: After a regional councilor
tested positive in Lombardy, Italy, the entire local government in the region will now be screened for the virus:
Lombardy's regional governor, Attilio Fontana, has reportedly quarantined himself after his government councilor for economic development was found to be carrying the virus. All members of the local government will now be required to be tested for the illness. Necessary procedures keeping with established protocols will be activated, depending on the results, the regional government said in a statement.
Italy is among several European states struggling to contain the virus. As of Monday, the country has confirmed 1,694 cases, with the death toll at 34, according to reports. An estimated 90 percent of the 1,694 cases in Italy are concentrated in the northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia Romagna.
Russia also saw its first coronavirus case on
home soil, from a Russian who caught it in Italy:
The case concerns a young Russian citizen who fell sick on vacation in Italy. He flew back to Russia on February 23, and a few days later went to a clinic in Moscow Region with symptoms of an acute respiratory viral infection, which was initially believed to be SARS. Subsequently, he was hospitalized in an infectious diseases hospital. His situation is currently described as stable.
The man is the fourth known Russian national to be infected, but the first inside the country. Two Chinese citizens diagnosed in Siberia in February have since recovered and been discharged. Three Russians fell ill with Covid-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan, and were later evacuated. Also on Monday, it was reported that a foreign citizen who transited through a Moscow airport from Iran to China, on an Aeroflot flight, had been found to have the disease.
In response, Russian medical authorities have
hospitalized and quarantined several people who have been in contact with the man:
Within 24 hours of the first signs on Friday that the man might be infected, a full list of his recent contacts was established, including relatives, friends, acquaintances and the passengers who were on the same flight from Italy as him, Sobyanin said in a statement. "Six relatives and five acquaintances of the patient were hospitalized. From the passengers of the flight [from Italy], 13 people were hospitalized, 83 people were quarantined."
Comment: After a regional councilor tested positive in Lombardy, Italy, the entire local government in the region will now be screened for the virus: Russia also saw its first coronavirus case on home soil, from a Russian who caught it in Italy: In response, Russian medical authorities have hospitalized and quarantined several people who have been in contact with the man: