Pressure has been rising on Iranian authorities to take stronger action against the coronavirus as the number of death and cases rapidly escalated. Iran has disclosed 92 fatalities, as 586 new cases of infection were reported in less than 24 hours, bringing the total up to 2,922, state media said.
The Islamic Republic has the largest number of public officials sickened by the outbreak, including the country's vice president, its Deputy health minister and 23 other members of parliament. Iran has imposed a prohibition on top state officials from leaving the country until further notice, increasing measures to contain the rapid spread of the disease.
Tehran said it will release, on a temporary basis, 54,000 people from jail facilities and deploy hundreds of thousands of health personnel as officials declared a wave of actions to combat the world's deadliest virus outbreak outside China.
Governments around the globe are scrambling to contain the spread of COVID-19, which is rising worldwide even as transmission in China, where the virus emerged in January last year, continues to show some signs of abating within the country.
There are over 93,000 cases around the world so far - the great majority in China - but as deaths are reported in Italy, Iran and the US - authorities are looking into new quarantine areas and travel bans.
According to Iran's presidential website, "the disease (coronavirus) is now widespread. It has hit nearly all our provinces." Iran has canceled Holy Friday prayers in all provincial capitals this week because of the virus, state broadcast reported Wednesday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the country would get through the virus with a minimum number of deaths and in the shortest period of time, thanks to the skills of its medical experts.
Rouhani took a jab at an American offer to help with the outbreak without mentioning the United States directly. Last week, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo said Washington had offered to help the Islamic Republic with the outbreak.
Reacting to Pompeo's statements, Rouhani said the US has appeared with "a mask of sympathy that 'we also want to help the people of Iran,'" adding that if the US is really telling the truth, then it must lift sanctions from medicine."
Meanwhile, a medical research facility linked with the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps disclosed it is testing a vaccine that has the potential to eradicate the deadly coronavirus.
According to Brigadier General Alireza Jalali, president of Baqiatollah Medical Sciences University, the vaccine is awaiting approval from Iran's Food and Drug Organization to enter the clinical phase.
The IRGC is also working to make its own laboratory testing materials within 12 months. The lack of testing kits has become one of the huge challenges to the proper handling of the outbreak in Iran.
