TEHRAN - Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Saturday that all the Iranian citizens in other countries must observe healthcare protocols to return to the country.

“The Ministry of Health has set a series of healthcare protocols for entering the country on these days and we have presented them to the Iranian citizens through our embassies,” ISNA quoted him as saying.

He noted, “A flight was made within this framework, however, unfortunately, the process was disrupted and certain people did not observe the protocols when they entered the country.”

Iran’s embassy in Rome issued a statement on Thursday announcing Friday’s flight to Iran was cancelled due to a number of passengers’ failure to observe the healthcare protocols on Wednesday’s flight.

Mousavi said on Friday that Tehran and Rome are consulting to evacuate the Iranian students in Italy.

“We are consulting to have one flight from Rome and two from Milan to Tehran,” Mousavi explained.

He said that the Iranian students in Italy have been informed about healthcare protocols before, during and after their trip.

The Iranian Health Ministry announced on Saturday that that 73 coronavirus patients lost their lives in the country over the past 24 hours, a considerable decline compared with 89 deaths the day before.

Over the past 24 hours, 1,374 new patients were infected with the coronavirus compared with 1,499 a day earlier, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said, ISNA reported.

The total number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus in the country has reached 80,868, of whom 55,987 have recovered and 5,031 have died.

Reportedly, so far, 172,434 Italians have also been infected by the coronavirus. Of this number, 22,745 have lost their lives.

NA/PA