TEHRAN – In a tweet on Thursday, Abbasali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, rebuffed rumors claiming that Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Council, has contracted Covid-19.

“A few minutes ago, I spoke by phone with Ayatollah Jannati. Thank God, he was in good health. He asked about some administrative issues and I answered his questions. We agreed to follow up on the issues Saturday at the Council,” tweeted Kadkhodaei.

The public relations office of the Guardian Council also dismissed the reports of Jannati contracting the novel coronavirus as untrue, according to a Fars news agency report.

Earlier, a Twitter account claiming to be affiliated with the deputy editor-in-chief of the Fars news agency claimed that Jannati was infected with Covid-19. However, the agency said the account had nothing to do with it.
 
On Friday, Sima Sadat-Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran’s Health Ministry, announced 118 new Covid-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of fatalities to 22,044. The spokeswoman also announced 2,026 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 382,772.

Iran is one of the hardest-hit countries that struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic while making efforts to shield the economy from the pandemic’s impact.

SKM/PA