A top Iranian official died from the coronavirus Monday as the outbreak stretches across the hardest-hit country outside of China, The Associated Press reported, citing state radio.
The official, Mohammad Mirmohammadi, was a member of the Expediency Council which advises Iran’s supreme leader. He reportedly died at a north Tehran hospital due to the virus. He was 71.
His mother had reportedly died due to the coronavirus in recent days as well.
Iran has 1,501 confirmed cases in the country and the virus has killed 66 people in Iran, according to the AP.
Iran has the highest death toll in any country outside of China, where the virus originated and has killed more than 2,000 people.
Other top officials in Iran have contracted the virus, including Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, the English-speaking spokeswoman for the students who seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the hostage crisis, and Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus, according to the AP.
Health Ministry spokesman Ali Reza Raisi told reporters Monday Iran is ready to mobilize 300,000 troops to help combat the virus, according to the AP.
