MOSCOW, February 27. /TASS/. /TASS/. Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh Ebtekar has tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), IRNA news agency informed on Thursday.

According to the agency, Ebtekar tested positive for coronavirus on Thursday morning. She chose to remain quarantined at home.

Earlier on Thursday, head of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Relations Commission Mojtaba Zonnour stated that he had contracted coronavirus. On Tuesday, Iranian MP Mahmoud Sadeghi and Iranian Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi also confirmed that they had tested positive for COVID-19.

On February 19, the Iranian Health Ministry reported first cases of novel coronavirus in the country in the city of Qom. According to official data, there are 245 cases of COVID-19 in Iran, with at least 26 recorded deaths.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about an outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, central China. Coronavirus cases have been reported in at least 44 countries outside of China, including Russia. According to Chinese authorities, about 78,400 people have been infected with the virus in the country. The death toll has reached 2,744, while over 32,400 patients have recovered. WHO declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a global health emergency and named the virus COVID-19.