Senior Khamenei aide tested positive for coronavirus

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (C) is accompanied by Ali Akbar Velayati (L), a senior adviser of Ali Khamenei and Iranian First Vice President Ishaq Jahangiri (R) as he departs to New York from Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran, Iran on 23 September 2019 to attend the 74th session of United Nations General Assembly. [Iranian Presidency / Handout – Anadolu Agency]

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior aide of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has tested positive for the coronavirus, Iranian news agencies reported on Thursday.

Velayati, 75, is the president of Masih Daneshvari Hospital in Tehran, and contracted the virus after being exposed to infected patients at the hospital, which is the main centre for treating COVID-19 patients.

Doctors have confirmed that Velayati, who is a paediatrician, was put into quarantine and have described his condition as “good” as he suffers only with mild symptoms.

Velayati is not the first Iranian official who tested positive for the coronavirus.

On Thursday official statistics in Iran stated that 12,729 Iranians suffered from the virus and 611 have passed away.

Meanwhile, an Iranian medical official was reported by the official Iranian news agency, IRNA, stating that 81 Iranians have died due to consuming toxic alcohol amid misinformation that it can cure the virus. The World Health Organisation have denied these claims.

Expert: Iran fails to take timely measures for COVID-19

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.