WHO sends medics and supplies to Iran as coronavirus death toll rises

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday sent its first planeload of assistance to Iran to help fight the novel coronavirus, as the death toll from the outbreak in the Islamic Republic rose to 66.

Six medics have been dispatched along with 7.5 tonnes of medical equipment and supplies, including test kits, aboard a UAE military aircraft, said Robert Blanchard from the WHO in Dubai.

Iran said on Monday that the new coronavirus had killed another 12 people in the Islamic Republic, raising the country's overall death toll from the virus to 66.

The number of confirmed cases leapt by 523 from the previous day, to a total of 1,501, Deputy Health Minister Alireza Raisi told a news conference.

Iran has seen the deadliest outbreak of the new coronavirus outside of China, the epicenter of the outbreak. 

The worst-hit places were Tehran, the central province of Qom and Gilan in the north, Raisi said, adding that 291 people had recovered. 

Qom, a Shia Muslim holy city, was the scene of Iran's first reported cases and deaths from the outbreak.

Experts are worried over Iran's response to the crisis, as the country's rate of deaths to infections, around 5.5 percent, is much higher than other countries.

That rate likely means the number of people infected with the virus is higher than currently thought.

In South Korea, for example, more than 4,300 people have been diagnosed with the virus, also known as COVID-19, but fewer have died than in the Islamic Republic.

A number of top Iranian officials have also fallen ill with the new coronavirus.

Among them was Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of a council that advises supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mirmohammadi died in a Tehran hospital on Monday.

Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar - infamous for her role as the English-speaking spokesperson during the US Embassy hostage crisis - and former Deputy Health Minister Iraj Hirarchi have also contracted the novel coronavirus.

Medical team to Iran

Supplies worth more than $300,000 were dispatched from the UAE to Iran on Monday, Blanchard said. Among the supplies sent were gloves, surgical marks and respirators - "the critical items needed for infection prevention and control to support health care workers", he added.

The WHO official also warned that global supplies to combat the novel coronavirus are running low.