A member of Iran’s advisory council died on Monday after being diagnosed with coronavirus, according to the state media, making him the first top official in Tehran to succumb to the illness.
The advisory council meets infrequently and advises Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on resolving disputes between government bodies.
Tehran raised the number of cases to 1,501 and said that 66 had now died of the virus. The new figures represent 23 more deaths than reported on Saturday and a whopping 908 new cases of infections.
Other Iranian officials that have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, also known as Covid-19, include Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, who is better known as “Mary,” the English-speaking spokeswoman for students who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the 444-day hostage crisis.
She is the highest-ranking woman in the government.
Ms Ebtekar usually sits a few seats away from President Hassan Rouhani during cabinet meetings.
The country’s deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, tested positive for the virus last week, a day after he was seen on state television coughing and sweating as Tehran claimed the outbreak is under control.
“I’ve isolated myself in a place since. A few minutes ago, I was told that my test was final, and now I am starting medication,” Mr Harirchi said in a video.
Iran has the highest number of coronavirus cases outside of China where the disease was first reported.
Besides Mr Harirchi and Ms Ebtekar, other politicians infected include Mojtaba Zolnour, a member of Parliament from Qom, and the head of Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee Mahmoud Sadeghi, an outspoken member of Parliament from Tehran, Morteza Rahmanzadeh, the mayor of a Tehran district, Mohamad Reza Ghadir, head of coronavirus management in Qom and director of the city’s state medical university.