TEHRAN – Iran has received extra diagnostic kits and personal protective equipment to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The Iranian Ministry of Health announced that the fourth batch of test kits, special for diagnosing the coronavirus, known as COVID-19, has been delivered to Iran with the assistance of Christoph Hamelmann, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Iran, IRNA reported on Friday.

Iranian health authorities reported one fatality on Saturday and two fatalities on Friday, adding to the two elderly patients who died on Wednesday. A further 18 people tested positive for the virus.

World health officials have said the respiratory disease is capable of spreading through human-to-human contact, droplets carried through sneezing and coughing and germs left on inanimate objects. There are no proven therapies for the new virus.

Preliminary results from two clinical trials testing potential treatments for COVID-19 are expected in three weeks, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

MG