Iran's Masoumeh Ebtekar, spokesperson for 1979 hostage-crisis has been found positive for Coronavirus. Iran's state newspaper has broken the story. Masoumeh Ebtekar is Vice President for Women and Family Affairs. Masoumeh Ebtekar is the first woman of Iran President Hassan Rouhani to have been tested positive for Coronavirus.
West Asia has been the recent region to see an increasing number of Coronavirus infections.
Iran President Hassan Rouhani said there were no immediate plans to quarantine cities, but he acknowledged it may take “one, two or three weeks” to get control of the virus in Iran, which has been linked to most of the over 210 confirmed cases in the region.
As Iran’s 80 million people find themselves increasingly isolated in the region by the outbreak, the country’s sanctions-battered economy saw its currency slump to its lowest level against the U.S. dollar in a year.
Saudi Arabia on Thursday banned foreign pilgrims from entering the kingdom to visit Islam's holiest sites over the new coronavirus, potentially disrupting the plans of millions of faithful ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and as the annual hajj pilgrimage looms.
The decision showed the growing worry across the Mideast about the virus as Iran confirmed that infected cases in the country spiked by over 100, to 254 now. A total of 26 people have died so far, it said. That pushes the region's overall cases to above 350. Iran's death toll is highest outside of China, where the outbreak began.
Iran hostage crisis 1979
The crisis was a diplomatic stand-off between USA and Iran in 1979, the year of Iranian revolution. More than 50 US diplomats were locked up for 444 days as group of Iranian college students took over the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Masoumeh Ebtekar was Iranian spokesperson during the crisis. In Iran, the crisis was seen as the country's defiance against USA's dominance in the world.
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