A senior Iranian cleric has died after contracting the coronavirus last week, media outlets in the country reports.
Ayatollah Sayyid Hashim Bathayi, a member of the Assembly of Experts, a powerful group that chooses the country’s supreme leader, reportedly contracted the disease last week, according to a number of Iranian outlets.
The 78-year-old cleric was one of several Iranian cabinet ministers, members of parliament, Revolutionary Guard members and Health Ministry officials who have been infected.
The outbreak has infected nearly 14,000 people in Iran in total and killed more than 700, with the toll jumping by more than a hundred in the last 24 hours. The real numbers may be even higher, as some have questioned the government’s reporting.
— with AP
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