Iran on Sunday closed schools, universities and cultural centers for one week as death toll from a coronavirus outbreak is rising to 12 people according to official report.
The new coronavirus has killed about 2500 people in China, the epicenter of the epidemic, and 17 elsewhere in the world.
The closure of schools and universities came after Iranians on social media called for state’s preventive measures including a call for shutting down holy places in the city of Qom, where the country’s first cases were seen.
On Monday, Iranian authorities however refused to close holy shrines in Iran’s most religious city of Qom.
Ministry of Health announced today that the total numbers of patients with Coronavirus reached 64.
The trustiness of the official reports has been questioned by the representative of Qom in Iran’s parliament Ahmad Amir-Abadi on Monday as he claimed the number of deaths in the city reached at least 50.
Amir-Abadi said he sent the list of the names of people who died from the virus in the city of Qom to the Ministry.
The Islamic Republic has also announced that "all art and cinema events in halls across the country have been cancelled until the end of the week" in order to stop infections.
Following the outbreak of the virus, Iraq and Kuwait decided to suspend the entry of Iranian citizens to their countries.
