A key adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has been placed in quarantine after experiencing “mild symptoms” of the new coronavirus, Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.
Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on foreign policy, was “quarantined after having experienced mild symptoms of coronavirus,” the agency said.
It quoted a spokesman at Tehran’s Massih Danechvari hospital for its report.
The hospital, of which Velayati, a paediatrician by profession, is the head, is the main center for coronavirus patients.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, when the light symptoms appeared, doctors prescribed a test” for the 74-year-old Velayati, Tasnim said.
He was later placed in isolation at his home and given medicine, the agency added without saying whether Velayati had tested positive for the virus.
But Tasnim said that Velayati’s “general health is improving.”
Velayati is a close adviser to Khamenei and served as Iran’s foreign minister from 1981-1997.
Iran has over 10 thousand confirmed cases of coronavirus and 429 deaths from the coronavirus disease as of Thursday night, including 75 deaths in the past 24 hours. Iran ‘s per capita number of cases is more than double China’s; 120 vs 56 cases per 1 million people
The outbreak in Iran is one of the deadliest outside China, where the disease originated.
Several politicians and officials both sitting and former have been infected, with some dying from the illness. An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died earlier this month after contracting the novel coronavirus, state radio reported .Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, was a member of the Expediency Council that advises Khamenei.
AFP
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