President Rouhani accused the United States of spreading fear about nCoV as Iran recorded the largest number of epidemic deaths outside of China.

"We should not allow the United States to assign a new virus to overwhelm the corona virus, called 'extreme fear'," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said today during a weekly cabinet meeting in Tehran. "The Americans themselves are struggling with the corona virus. 16,000 Americans have died of influenza, but they are not talking about themselves," he said.

The statement, given by Rouhani in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic, has infected 139 people in Iran, with at least 19 deaths. It is the country with the highest epidemic mortality rate in the world, more than 13%, while the death rate in China is just over 3%.

Alireza Vahabzadeh, a communications adviser to Iran's Health Minister, yesterday announced that Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi was also infected with nCoV.

Iran on February 19 recorded the first two deaths from nCoV in the city of Qom, the holy city of Shiite Muslims. The government has closed schools, cultural centers, canceled sporting events and deployed a team of sanitation workers to disinfect buses, trains and public places.

Several neighboring countries have declared their borders closed to Iran to prevent the spread of the disease. Many countries also stopped flying to the Islamic nation after confirmed cases of nCoV from Iran were confirmed in Canada, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and Iraq.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on February 25 expressed concern that Iran could cover up the truth about the spread of the epidemic and at the same time called on all countries to "publish the truth".

President Rouhani said today that Iran has made progress in the fight against nCoV, and vowed to be transparent about the statistics related to the disease.

The Covid-19 epidemic has been reported in 39 countries and territories since it began in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The world currently records more than 80,000 cases, more than 2,700 deaths, mostly in mainland China.