The official death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran has passed 4,000, the country’s health ministry reported on Thursday, after 117 more people were confirmed to have died from the disease in the past 24 hours.
Kianoush Jahanpour, the health ministry spokesman, said the total death toll in the Islamic republic was now 4,110, while 32,309 had recovered, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).
In total, the country has reported 66,220 confirmed cases since its outbreak – the worst so far in the Middle East – began. Of those, 3,918 people are still in a critical condition, Jahanpour said.
He added that 231,393 tests have so far been carried out.
The latest death toll from Iran comes as its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday appealed for Iranians to help stop the spread of the coronavirus by staying at home to pray during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
“In the absence of public gatherings during Ramadan, such as prayers, speeches … which we are deprived of this year, we should not neglect worship, invocation and humility in our loneliness,” AFP reported him as saying in a televised speech.
