Coronavirus kills four more in Iran, taking total to 19: ministry
Health official said 44 confirmed cases of coronavirus in last 24 hours
Dubai: Nineteen people have died and 139 people have been infected by coronavirus in Iran, health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur said on Wednesday in an announcement on state TV.
Iran has had the highest number of deaths from coronavirus outside China, where the virus emerged in late 2019.
President Hassan Rouhani accused the United States on Wednesday of trying to spread "fear" in Iran over a coronavirus outbreak that has killed 15 people in the Islamic republic.
"We shouldn't let America mount a new virus on top of coronavirus that is called... extreme fear," Rouhani told a weekly cabinet meeting, a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of suppressing information about the outbreak.
Coronavirus must not become an "enemy weapon" that prevents business in Iran, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, according to the official presidency website.
"Corona should not be turned into a weapon of our enemies for shutting down work and production in the country," Rouhani said.
Five neighboring countries reported their first cases of the virus, with those infected all having links to Iran, including direct travel from city of Qom.
A lawmaker from Qom, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani, was quoted by the semi-official ILNA news agency as saying that the death toll was 50.