Military on alert as virus kills 77, sickens leaders

TEHRAN (AP):

Iran put its armed forces on alert yesterday to assist health officials in battling the new coronavirus that’s killed at least 77 people, an outbreak that has sickened top officials and pushed even its supreme leader into wearing disposable gloves while trying to reassure the nation.

Even as government officials sit feet away from each other at meetings now in an effort to stop its spread, the virus is ravaging both its civilian leadership and its Shiite theocracy. A top emergency official and at least 23 members of parliament reportedly contracted the virus and now suffer from the COVID-19 illness it causes. Others have died.

There are now over 2,540 cases of the new virus across the Mideast, with 2,336 in Iran alone. Of those outside Iran in the region, most link back to the Islamic Republic.

Experts worry Iran’s percentage of deaths to infections, now around 3.3 per cent, is much higher than other countries, suggesting the number of infections in Iran may be far greater than current figures show. Meanwhile, a gloved Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sought to minimise the virus while praising the doctors and nurses combating the outbreak. He urged the nation to pray.

Iran stands alone in how the virus has affected its government, even compared to hard-hit China, the epicentre of the outbreak. Worldwide, the virus has infected 90,000 people and caused 3,100 deaths.

The death of Expediency Council member Mohammad Mirmohammadi on Monday makes him the highest-ranking official within Iran’s leadership to be killed by the virus. State media referred to him as a confidant of Khamenei.

AVOID PUBLIC

The virus earlier killed Hadi Khosroshahi, Iran’s former ambassador to the Vatican, as well as a recently elected member of parliament. Ahmad Tuyserkani, an adviser to Iran’s judiciary chief, died Monday night from the virus, semiofficial media reported.

Those sick include Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as ‘Sister Mary’, the English-speaking spokeswoman for the students who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the 444-day hostage crisis, state media reported. Also sick is Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who tried to downplay the virus before falling ill.

Yesterday, lawmaker Abdolreza Mesri told Iranian state television’s Young Journalists Club program that 23 members of parliament had the coronavirus. He urged all lawmakers to avoid the public.