The Novel Coronavirus has killed 66 people in Iran and over 1,500 have been infected. While several high-ranking officials, including a vice minister, deputy health minister and five lawmakers, have tested positive for COVID-19, reports revealed that a top-ranked Iranian official has died on Monday, as the Middle East country continues to record higher death toll than anywhere outside of China.
The deceased, Seyed Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi, aged 71, was a close adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and had been a member of Iran's Expediency Discernment Council since 2007. He died in Tehran hospital on Monday.

Coronavirus outbreak in Iran
As per the reports, the Health ministry spokesperson, Alireza Raisi confirmed that "The definite latest numbers we have are 523 new infections and 12 new deaths so the total number of those infected until now is 1501 and the number of deaths is 66."
Local media reported that one lawmaker, who was elected in Iran's February 21 polls has died of the new Coronavirus. Health Minister of Iran, Saeed Namaki warned on Friday, February 28 of "a very difficult" week ahead in the country, which announced its first infections and deaths due to the Novel Coronavirus outbreak on February 19.
OMG! Iran's Deputy Health Minister:
— M. Hanif Jazayeri (@HanifJazayeri) March 2, 2020
• 12000 Iranians have tested positive for the #CoronaVirus in hospital
• Only 1 in 5 #COVID19 carriers come to hospital
You do the math. 12000 x 5 = 60,000 people are infected.
CC @WHO @VP @mbachelet @PressSec @MessageFromLen @statedeptspox pic.twitter.com/LrfK3nkaPI
Shocking videos appeared on social media
A recently posted video is going viral on social media platform Twitter which showed a man in Iran lying on the road. It is claimed by the Twitter users that the man, who was wearing a mask, was infected by COVID-19 and collapsed in the middle of the street. The video also showed some people around the unidentified man.
A Twitter user, Farhang F Namdar, a student at the University of Slemani shared the video of the incident and wrote that "A corona patient has fallen in a public street with many poeple passing by. The virus is spreading very rapidly in Iran and precautionary measures are not taken."
Another user mentioned in a separate Tweet that "Iran now looks like China, people collapsing in the streets. #coronavirus."
Iran: Mashhad
— Farhang F. Namdar (@FarhangNamdar) March 1, 2020
A corona patient has fallen in a public street with many poeple passing by.
The virus is spreading very rapidly in Iran and precautionary measures are not taken #irancorona #Corona #COVID19 #CoronaOutbreak #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/oXNmGcqIGZ
Another footage shared by Namdar showed a COVID-19 patient collapsed in the streets of Sanandaj in Western Iran and a medical team arrived to help the man.
Footage
— Farhang F. Namdar (@FarhangNamdar) March 2, 2020
A corona patient fallen in the streets of Sanindaj in Western Iran, Iranian Kurdistan.
The Corona Virus is spreading faster in Iran than anywhere else.#irancoronavirus #Iran #Corona #CoronavirusOutbreak #CoronaVirusUpdate #COVID19 #كورونا pic.twitter.com/RV7cC17VWW
A sperate video was shared on twitter, by an Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad that featured a man wearing a mask. The Tweet revealed that the man in the video is actually a nurse at the Kamkar Hospital of Qom who said that during his night shift, he witnessed eight deaths. In the Tweet, Alinejad also mentioned that "Iran's officials are trying to cover up Corona deaths by lying and underreporting them."
In Iran, #CoronaVirus is wreaking havoc. Listen to this nurse from the Kamkar Hospital of Qom. He says during his night shift alone, he witnessed 8 people die.
— Masih Alinejad ðŸ³ï¸ (@AlinejadMasih) February 26, 2020
Iran's officials are trying to cover up Corona deaths by lying and underreporting them.
The situation is very serious pic.twitter.com/iuHdTo7GQF
There are some videos which also showed that Iranian men licking the bars of a holy shrine just to prove that they are not afraid of the deadly outbreak.
Two Muslims and one child are licking the bars of a holy shrine in Iran to show that they are not afraid of the Coronavirus.
— The Caring Atheist (@Caring_Atheist) February 29, 2020
Religion can truly make you insane !
What the hell is this ??? pic.twitter.com/f1zXZaeWDe
In another video, a sick man can be seen along with four men, who were trying to get the unconscious man on a stretcher.
In this video the sender says:
— Iran Momentum (@IranMomentum) March 2, 2020
“This is how a suspected #Coronavirus patient is transferred in this countryâ€, “Nobody dares to get close, we helped out to put him on the stretcherâ€, “Look at the state of stretcherâ€.👇#CoronaVirusIran pic.twitter.com/clAR48oyoP
A separate video also showed the empty Iran international airport as people are trying to be at home instead of travelling during this alarming situation.
Iran international airport #ImamKhomeini almost empty. People try to stay home despite regime's refusal to lock down affected cities. #CoronaVirusIran pic.twitter.com/yGf2yjMmF2
— mina bai (@bai_mina) March 1, 2020
A few videos shared on social media also showed that Iranian authority is using water canon to clean the streets, while workers disinfected the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad to prevent the spread of Novel Coronavirus.
#Iran is using police water cannons loaded with chemical spray to disinfect streets in Tehran as a protective measure against #coronavirus, semi-official Tasnim News Agency reports. pic.twitter.com/jMtNeXKaXw
— US 🇺🇸 (@US_1981) March 2, 2020
The poor pedestrian who was sprayed!!
— Parham Ghobadi (@BBCParham) March 1, 2020
Iran uses water canon to clean the streets of Corona virus.
Like everything else, Iran sees a health crisis as a security threat which requires a military response.#Coronovirius
pic.twitter.com/vvFDmxqsv9
WATCH: Workers disinfected the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, Iran in a bid to prevent the spread of #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/liHAj5qiXu
— Shakthi Vadakkepat (@v_shakthi) February 28, 2020