Coronavirus Deaths Rise to 237, Infections Top 7,000

Iran reported 43 more fatalities and 595 confirmed coronavirus patients on Monday, bringing the death toll to 237 and the infected to 7,161, the Health Ministry’s spokesperson announced.
Kianoush Jahanpour added that by Monday noon, Iran had identified 595 new COVID-19 cases, including 43 who died from the disease, ISNA reported.
Tehran remains the epicenter of the infection in Iran with 1,945 confirmed cases, followed by Qom with 712, Mazandaran with 63, and Isfahan with 601 confirmed infections. Nearly 2,400 patients have recovered from the deadly virus.
A former parliament member also died of the respiratory illness on Monday. Mohammad Reza Rahchamani, 65, was the secretary of the pro-reform National Unity and Cooperation Party.
Iran’s Parliament, which closed on February 28 indefinitely to prevent the spread of the novel virus, convened on Monday morning with the presence of a limited number of members and Health Minister Saeed Namaki, who briefed the lawmakers on the outbreak.
More than 20 parliament members have contracted the disease.
During the session, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Iran's Supreme National Security Council has decreed that all institutions abide by the decisions made by the country’s coronavirus task force.
Later in the day, he explained that the government needs to set up a support council that can implement the decisions made by the taskforce.
He added, “Currently, armed forces are cooperating with the taskforce. These forces will also help when the coronavirus committee’s decisions need to be supported.”
Larijani also said that the top-level body is reviewing ways of mitigating the economic fallout of the coronavirus spread in Iran. The epidemic is believed to be able to push the global economy into recession, if not contained.
 

Tracking the Virus

ICT Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi wrote on Twitter that data analysis has pinpointed three locations where coronavirus has the highest rate of transfer among Iranians: hospitals, gas stations and stores, respectively.
Military forces have been employed to sterilize hospitals on a regular basis and gas station workers have been equipped with protective gear and disinfectants to halt the spread of the disease.
The Health Ministry issued a warning over methanol consumption to prevent contracting the virus. Ministry officials dismissed rumors that the consumption of alcohol can kill the virus and asked the public to only use methanol as a disinfectant.
Over 300 people in the western province of Khuzestan were admitted to hospitals and 20 died due to acute alcohol intoxication after a rumor circulated online that alcohol consumption can exterminate the virus.
Roughly 111,000 people have been infected by the flu-like disease worldwide and nearly 3,900 have died.
While the virus is showing signs of a slowdown in East Asia, other parts of the world are reporting more coronavirus cases every day, giving rise to doubts that the virus cannot be contained before it becomes endemic.