FNA - Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki blasted the western and Arab media outlets for releasing biased reports on the situation of coronavirus in his country, saying that several other regional states had been infected with the new virus before Iran.

“Unfortunately, it is being pretended in the world that Iran has turned into the epicentre of coronavirus which is fully wrong,” Namaki said in a meeting with the Iranian parliamentarians in Tehran on Monday.

He explained that a number of regional states, including Pakistan and the UAE, had been infected with the COVID-19 virus before Iran, adding that fighting coronavirus needs global unity, and raising allegations against others will yield no results but more damage and tolls.

Namaki also underlined the need for all ministries, Armed Forces, the Judiciary and the parliament to increase cooperation with the health ministry in the battle against coronavirus epidemic.

Globally, more than 114,000 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 with over 4,000 deaths so far, the vast majority of them in China where the virus originated late last year.

The coronavirus is spreading in the Middle East, Europe, US and other parts of the world, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.

Authorities across the United States reported over 700 cases of coronavirus and 26 deaths as of Monday.

More than 60 million people in Italy have been placed under lockdown after the government extended emergency measures across the entire country in an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

Italy is struggling to contain Europe’s worst outbreak of Covid-19, which has claimed 463 lives and infected 9,172 people.

On Monday, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak in Iran rose to 237 with 7,161 confirmed cases.

Some 2,394 patients infected by the coronavirus have so far recovered from the disease.

As the death toll from the virus surges, Iran intensifies its preventive safety measures. Closures of schools and universities have been extended for the next two weeks.

The government also imposed travel restrictions, specially on Iran’s north, which is among the red zones. The country has also adopted strict digital health control procedures at airports to spot possible infections.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki announced last week that a new national mobilization plan would be implemented across the country to fight against the coronavirus epidemic and more effectively treat patients.

Namaki said that the plan will include all the 17,000 health centers and the 9,000 medical and clinical centers in all cities, suburban areas and villages.

He added that the plan will include home quarantine, noting that infected people will receive the necessary medicines and advice, but they are asked to stay at home.

Namaki said that people with a more serious condition will stay at the hospitals, adding that the public places will be disinfected, the entries of infected towns and cities will be controlled to diagnose and quarantine the infected cases.

He added that the necessary equipment and facilities have been provided, expressing the hope that the epidemic would be curbed.

Namaki said that the number of medical laboratories to test coronavirus infection has reached 22, and will increase to 40 soon.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Iran's response to the virus has so far been up to the mark. Still, it says the US sanctions are a big challenge, and Washington would be complicit in the rising death toll in Iran if it would not remove its sanctions.

The World Health Organization has considered priorities in combating coronavirus and Islamic Republic of Iran obeys and follows up priorities as defined by WHO.

The WHO is dispatching separate delegations to all countries.