Iranian health authorities on Friday reported two more deaths from the new virus that emerged in China and said the fatalities were from among 13 new confirmed cases of the virus in Iran, ABC News reported.
The report by the semiofficial Mehr news agency came as Iranians voted in nationwide parliamentary elections. After authorities reported two earlier deaths this week, the death toll from COVID-19, the illness caused by virus, stands at four in Iran.
So far, 18 cases have been confirmed in Iran, including the four who died.
The spokesman of the health ministry, Kianoush Jahanpour, said the newly detected cases are all linked with city of Qom where the first two elderly patients died on Wednesday.
Jahanpour said the new cases were either from Qom or had visited the city recently. He said four of them have been hospitalized in the capital, Tehran, and two in northern province of Gilan.
Qom is a popular religious destination and a center of learning and religious studies for Muslims from inside Iran, as well as Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Azerbaijan. It is also known for its cattle farms.
Egypt Today