Coronavirus Kills Top Iranian Official, State Media Reports

A top government official in Iran has reportedly been killed by the coronavirus, becoming the most high-profile victim of the outbreak in the country where 66 people have lost their lives. Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, was a member of the council that advises Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. State radio reported that he died at a Tehran hospital after testing positive for the disease last week. Iran’s vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar and Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus, are also believed to be sick. Mirmohammadi’s death came as Iran announced the virus had killed 66 people among 1,501 confirmed cases in the country, according to the Associated Press. That’s the second highest death toll in the world behind China. Meanwhile, in South Korea—which has confirmed more coronavirus cases than Iran but fewer deaths—the head of the religious sect at the centre the outbreak has apologized. About 60 percent of the country's more than 4,000 confirmed cases are members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus sect.