IRNA – Iranian Ministry of Health, Treatment and Medical Education announced that with the efforts made by the representative of the World Health Organization in Iran Christoph Hamelmann the 4th shipment of coronavirus test kits have been delivered to Iran.

During his trip to Dubai, Hamelmann received the consignment and delivered it to the Pasteur Institute of Iran.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "CDC has developed a new laboratory test kit for use in testing patient specimens for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19."

“The test kit is called the 'Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase (RT)-PCR Diagnostic Panel'."

The Chinese officials announced that the coronavirus epidemic has so far killed thousands of people in China.

The National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China has allocated 60 billion Yuan ($8.7b) for fighting coronavirus.

The severity of illness and risk of mortality of coronavirus is less than SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV) which is about three percent.

In the meantime, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Geng Shuang appreciated the Iranian Ambassador to China Mohammad Keshavarzzadeh for his message of sympathy with the Chinese people.

“Recently many foreign ambassadors and representatives to China said on social media platforms that they stand with China in this fight against the NCP (COVID-19),” he added.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying also praised Iran for sending medical face-masks.

Hua Chunying referred to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s message that China has taken effective and firm actions to contain coronavirus as a sign of long-term and traditional friendship between the two countries.

Eighteen Iranians have so far been affected by coronavirus and four of them died.