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Iran has announced the highest number of daily deaths from the emerging coronavirus, with 251 new deaths reported.
This comes alongside local news reports that Ali Akbar Salehi, director of the Atomic Energy Organization, had contracted the virus.
Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Larry said the total number of deaths now stands at 28,544, making Iran the most affected country in the region.
The country recently registered its highest number of daily deaths 4 days ago, with a total of 239 new deaths, while during the last 24 hours 3,822 new cases of the virus were registered, which brings the cases registered nationwide to 500,075, from of which about 4,500 are in critical condition.
The semi-official news agency (Tasnim) said Salehi contracted the virus last week and has been in home quarantine ever since. The agency added that his health is currently good.
Meanwhile, a separate report released by the Tasnim Agency indicated that the vice president in charge of budget and planning, Muhammad Baqir Nobakht, also contracted the virus.
Iran has suffered from the nationwide spread of the virus of 80 million people, and only initially surpassed it, but saw the number of cases rise again starting in June.
The government has largely resisted the imposition of widespread lockdown measures, as the economy suffers from the reimposition of US sanctions on Iran for its destabilizing activities.
Exchange houses in Tehran sold the US dollar for 315,000 riyals on Sunday, compared with 32,000 riyals to the dollar at the time Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers was concluded in 2015.
The drop in the value of the Iranian currency comes days after the Trump administration decided to blacklist 18 Iranian banks.
This step exposes non-Iranian financial institutions to sanctions if they do business with Iran, effectively isolating these banks from the international financial system.
