News agency: Iran VP, 2 Cabinet members have new virus
By NASSER KARIMI and AMIR VAHDATMarch 11, 2020 GMT
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s senior vice president and two other Cabinet members have contracted the new coronavirus, a semiofficial news agency reported Wednesday as the death toll in the Islamic Republic from the outbreak rose by 62 to 354.
The report by the Fars news agency, believed to be close to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, comes as President Hassan Rouhani took control of the country’s much-criticized response to the virus and the COVID-19 illness it causes. Authorities announced that there were some 9,000 confirmed cases of the virus across Iran.