Coronavirus: Iran denies entry of British passenger, 82 more patients die in 24 hours

A day after Iran's health minister announced that a British traveler had brought the "first case" of the mutated coronavirus into the country, the country's civil aviation authority denied the matter.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said on Tuesday, January 6, that the "first case" of the mutated coronavirus has been identified in an Iranian citizen who traveled to Iran from Britain and is now hospitalized in a private hospital.

Mr. Namaki announced the news after twice denying the entry of the virus into the country.

But after his statements, there was strong criticism in cyberspace about the lack of proper monitoring of flights and passengers entering Iran.

Now, Abolghasem Jalali, Deputy Director of Aviation and International Affairs at the Civil Aviation Organization, has told ISNA: "The entry of the British coronavirus into Iran has nothing to do with airlines and aviation companies."

Mr. Jalali emphasized: "Exactly from the day the Ministry of Health and Medical Education announced it, we stopped flights from England, and no passenger has been allowed to enter the country since that day."

At the same time, the Iranian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that 82 more people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, continuing the downward trend in deaths from the coronavirus in Iran after the restrictions were imposed.

Sima Lari, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, announced that including these people, the death toll from the disease in Iran has reached 55,830.

According to him, over the past 24 hours, 6,283 new patients with Covid-19 were identified in Iran, and 603 of them were hospitalized in medical centers across the country.

Ms. Lari also announced the government's statistics on COVID-19 patients in Iran as 1,261,903.

According to this report, currently, 4,780 patients with coronavirus in Iran are under care in severe condition.

Iranian Ministry of Health officials provide the media with daily statistics on coronavirus infections and deaths, but the accuracy of these statistics has been repeatedly questioned by independent international organizations and several domestic officials.

Source: Radio Farda