Less than 24 hours after holding a press conference to downplay the threat of coronavirus in a large city, Iran’s deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi publicly admitted that he had contracted the disease and would be isolating himself from others.
According to The New York Times, Harirchi denied claims Monday that coronavirus was spreading faster than the government was willing to acknowledge. Harichi also pressed back against a member of the Iranian parliament who previously claimed that 50 people had died in his city from the disease, and that an additional 10 people would die every day.
“I will resign if the numbers are even half or a quarter of this,” Harirchi said in the press conference, reports the news agency. As of Tuesday, Iran had publicly acknowledged that 15 people have died after contracting coronavirus.
In a video of the press conference where Harirchi made the remarks, the health official can be seen sweating profusely and patting himself with a cloth.
LATEST: #Iran’s deputy health minister Irraj Harirchi confirms he has contracted #coronavirus, been placed in quarantine.
Footage from a press release held on Monday shows the deputy minister sweating excessively.
More on this soon! pic.twitter.com/LwDggM7vcw
— Rudaw English (@RudawEnglish) February 25, 2020
According to Buzzfeed News, Harirchi said in a video statement the following day that he had contracted the disease, and would now be isolating himself from others so as to not infect anyone.
As The Daily Wire reported earlier Tuesday, the Center for Disease Control has issued a warning for Americans to begin preparing for a coronavirus outbreak, which may create “disruptions” to daily life.
While the threat to Americans “remains low,” the CDC has encouraged people to begin “preparing for its arrival” so as to not be caught off guard.
“It’s not so much of a question of if this will happen in this country anymore but a question of when this will happen,” said Dr. Nancy Messonier, the director of the CDC’s national center for immunization and respiratory diseases. “We are asking the American public to prepare for the expectation that this might be bad.”
According to ABC News, the CDC’s precautions are standard protocol. Furthermore, “Americans should continue to practice protective measures — hand-washing, staying home from work when sick — while local officials should make sure systems are in place — teleschooling, working remotely — should face-to-face interactions need to be reduced. Health care facilities should be prepared to increase telehealth systems and delay elective surgeries should the need arise.”
Currently, the United States has had 57 confirmed cases, 40 of which were travelers rescued from a cruise ship that suffered its own coronavirus outbreak.
According to The Guardian, the mortality rate for coronavirus is approximately 2% in the Chinese province where the virus originated, but is slightly lower in other places. The common flu has a mortality rate below 1%.
According to The New York Times, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it was requesting $2.5 billion from Congress to stop the spread of coronavirus, and President Trump offered assurances the following day that “the whole situation will start working out.”