Coronavirus: Top adviser to Iran’s Khamenei quarantined

Tehran: A key adviser to Iran’s supreme leader has been placed in quarantine after experiencing “mild symptoms” of the new coronavirus, Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.

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Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on foreign policy, was “quarantined after having experienced mild symptoms of coronavirus,” the agency said.

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It quoted a spokesman at Tehran’s Massih Danechvari hospital for its report.

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The hospital, of which Velayati, a paediatrician by profession, is the head, is the main centre for coronavirus patients.

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“Yesterday (Wednesday) afternoon, when the light symptoms appeared, doctors prescribed a test” for the 74-year-old Velayati, Tasnim said.

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He was later placed in isolation at his home and given medicine, the agency added without saying whether Velayati had tested positive for the virus.

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But Tasnim said that Velayati’s “general health is improving”.

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Velayati is a close adviser to Khamenei and served as Iran’s foreign minister from 1981-1997.

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The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 429 lives in Iran and infected more than 10,000 people, according to the latest toll from the health ministry.

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The outbreak in Iran is one of the deadliest outside China, where the disease originated.

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Several politicians and officials both sitting and former have been infected, with some dying from the illness.

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