An adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died after he was infected with the coronavirus, which has infected several other top Iranian officials as well.
Expediency Council member Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, died Monday in a Tehran hospital, according to Iran state radio.
Iran’s vice president and deputy health minister have also been infected with the virus.
At least 66 people have died from the virus in Iran, the most fatalities outside of China, where the coronavirus originated. Iran currently has an official total of 1,501 cases, over 500 of which were reported in the last 24 hours from Sunday to Monday. The official fatality rate stands at 5.5 percent, well above the roughly 2 percent death rate reported in China. About 291 people have recovered, according to Iran’s deputy health minister Alireza Raisi.
Iran has so far refused U.S. offers of help to combat the virus, expressing suspicion that the U.S. is trying to break the spirits of Iranians over the epidemic.
“We neither count on such help nor are we ready to accept verbal help,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said Monday.
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed concern that Iranian government was attempting to cover up the scope of the toll the virus is taking on the population.
“The United States is deeply concerned by information indicating the Iranian regime may have suppressed vital details about the outbreak in that country,” Pompeo said last week.
The coronavirus has killed over 3,000 people worldwide and infected over 89,000. The U.S. currently has 91 cases of the deadly virus, including 26 confirmed or presumptive positive cases of person-to-person spread. New York City reported its first case on Sunday, and a second person died from the infection in Washington state.