The head of Iran’s atomic energy organization is the latest senior Tehran official to test positive for the coronavirus, the semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported Sunday.
According to the report, Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also a vice president of Iran, confirmed positive for the virus last week and has been in home quarantine since. The news agency reported that his health condition is currently good.
Tasnim also said the country’s vice president in charge of budget and planning, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, has tested positive for the virus.
Iran announced on Sunday its highest single-day death toll from the coronavirus with 251 confirmed dead, the same day local media reported two senior officials had been infected and the nation’s currency plunged to its lowest level ever.
Iranian Health Ministry spokesperson Sima Sadat Lari said the total confirmed death toll now stands at 28,544, making Iran the hardest-hit country in the region. Iran had just recently recorded its highest daily death toll four days earlier with 239 new fatalities.
A further 3,822 new cases were confirmed over the past 24 hour-period, raising recorded nationwide cases to 500,075. Nearly 4,500 patients are in critical condition.
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People wear protective face masks to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus in downtown Tehran
(Photo: Associated Press)
Iran has struggled to contain the spread of the virus across this nation of 80 million people, initially beating it back only to see a spike in cases again, beginning in June.
The government has largely resisted imposing wide-scale lockdowns as the economy teeters from continued U.S. economic sanctions that effectively bar Iran from selling its oil internationally.
Money exchange shops in Tehran sold the U.S. dollar at 315,000 rials on Sunday, compared to what was 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The currency plummeted further on Sunday after the Trump administration’s decision on Thursday to blacklist 18 Iranian banks that had so far escaped the bulk of re-imposed sanctions.
The move subjects non-Iranian financial institutions to penalties for doing business with them, effectively cutting the banks off from the international financial system.
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A woman wearing mask and gloves prays over the grave of her mother who died from COVID-19 at a cemetery on the outskirts of Babol, northern Iran
(Photo: AP)
Iran has seen several top officials contract the virus over past months, including senior Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri and Vice President Massoumeh Ebtekar.
A number of Cabinet ministers have also tested positive, including Tourism Minister Ali Asghar Mounesan and the former Industry Minister Reza Rahmani.
The head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus who had urged the public not to overreact about its spread was among the first senior officials to contract the virus in late February.