YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. The Iranian government is denying reports of 50 deaths from the novel coronavirus in the city of Qom, where the outbreak of the virus began in the Islamic Republic.

On Monday, a lawmaker from Qom  accused Iran’s health minister of lying about the scale of the outbreak, claiming that the first case was confirmed in Qom about three weeks ago, whereas the government has informed about the two first cases only on February 19.

However, Iran’s deputy healthcare minister Iraj Harirchi categorically denied the information.

The official data puts the death toll from the virus at 12, with 64 confirmed cases.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan