TEHRAN- The Iranian government has allocated 1,000 trillion rails (about $24 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) to help lessen impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the national economy.

"We allocated the sum in addition to the next year's budget in order to prevent from huge losses and to be able to go on more conveniently," President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday, ISNA reported.

He elaborated that 120 trillion rials (about $3 billion) has been allocated to the health sector and 50 trillion rials (about $1.2 billion) has been allocated to the unemployment fund.

Moreover, 750 trillion rials (about $17.8 billion) will be paid in low-interest loans to businesses, Rouhani noted.

Finally, 80 trillion rials (about $1.9 billion) will be paid in cash handouts to low-income families, he concluded.

The total number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus in Ian has reached 35,408, the health ministry's spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on Saturday.

Jahanpour said that 3,076  new patients have been identified over the past 24 hours.

He added that 139 more people have died and 11,679 people have recovered. So, the total number of people who have died of the coronavirus has reached 2,517 so far.

MG