TEHRAN — The Majlis Health and Treatment Committee plans to hold an emergency meeting on Monday over ways to curb the coronavirus outbreak in Iran.

Ali Nobakht, chairman of the committee, told Tasnim on Monday that the emergency meeting is set to be attended by Health Minister Saeed Namaki and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.

Nobakht said that during the session, various aspects of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country and ways to combat the infectious disease would be discussed.

The health minister will also brief the lawmakers on the latest measures taken by the ministry to combat the virus, known as COVID-19, he added.

First detected in Wuhan city in central China in December, the virus has spread to more than 100 countries.

The global death toll is around 3,500 with more than 100,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Iran’s administration on Thursday extended the closure of all schools and universities nationwide until the end of the current Iranian year (March 20) as the country is struggling with the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Iran has been the worst hit country in the Mideast, with a total of 7,161 infected cases and a total of 237 deaths on Monday. At least 2,394 people have also been released from hospitals after recovering from the illness.

Meanwhile, a senior official at the WHO says he has been impressed to see how Iran is fighting the spread of the coronavirus that has infected thousands of the people across the country.

Richard Brennan, WHO’s Director of Emergency Operations, said on Sunday that he was specifically satisfied to see efforts to contain coronavirus in Qom, a city some 120 kilometers to the southwest of the capital Tehran where the outbreak of the disease began less than three weeks ago.

“Very impressed by the dedication and hard work of the doctors and nurses and health workers here in Qom,” said Brennan at a briefing with reporters, adding, “The people of Qom should be very proud of their health workers.”

Brennan said he had personally seen in a hospital in Qom how the patients were receiving “very good care”.

That comes as reports have claimed that Iran, a country currently under a series of harsh economic sanctions by the United States, has been failing to provide proper treatment to people infected with coronavirus.

Iran has been using all its resources to fight coronavirus despite the fact that U.S. sanctions have hampered the government’s access to certain medicines and medical gear.

Brennan said that the Iranian government and local authorities in Qom had done their best to inform the public about the disease and how to prevent its spread.

“We’ve seen good efforts at educating the population,” said the WHO official who has been leading a delegation from the global health body to Iran to monitor the country’s efforts to contain the virus.

MH/PA