The head of Iran's emergency services has become the highest-ranking official so far to be infected in the country's coronavirus outbreak. Pirhossein Kolivand is the latest official to become a virus patient in an outbreak which has also infected eight per cent of Iran's parliament. The latest figures were announced by stand-in deputy health minister Alireza Raisi, after regular minister Iraj Harirchi himself came down with the virus. Despite this, Khamenei put the Islamic Republic's armed forces on alert today to assist health officials in combating the outbreak. Khamenei has also called on Iranians to stick to hygiene guidelines to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading.

Source: Daily Mail March 03, 2020 15:51 UTC