Seyed Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi, a member of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council that advises the Supreme Leader, has died of COVID-19.
His death comes as other top Iranian officials have contracted the virus.
The country has the highest death toll in the world, after China.
Seyed Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi was 71.
Iran, along with Italy, has just recently become a new coronavirus hotbed outside of China.
The number of people infected with COVID-19 in the Islamic Republic is approaching 600.
Over 40 people have died from the coronavirus disease in Iran.
The novel coronavirus was first detected in China in late December and has since spread to more than 50 countries, prompting the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a global health emergency.
So far, the virus infected more than 79,000 people in mainland China, while over 2,800 people died and nearly 40,000 have recovered.
According to the latest WHO data, the number of those infected outside China has reached 4,691, while 67 people have died.
Earlier, several Iranian officials fell ill with coronavirus as Iran has become the epicentre of the outbreak in the Middle East.
A team of WHO experts on Monday, February 2, 2020 landed in Tehran to support the nation’s ongoing response to the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)outbreak in the country.
The team will work with health authorities and other stakeholders to review ongoing readiness and response efforts, visit designated health facilities, laboratories and points of entry, and provide technical guidance.
Overall, the objectives of the mission are to: identify transmission dynamics and at-risk populations; provide guidance on strengthening and scaling up the response to the ongoing outbreak, including agreement on priority control measures; and provide guidance on strengthened readiness for areas not yet affected by the outbreak.
