Turkey and Pakistan close borders with Iran as coronavirus death toll reaches 8

Several countries have banned people entering from Iran after the country confirmed eight people have died due to coronavirus.

Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq have all shut their borders to Iranian citizens on Sunday, amid accusations Tehran officials have not acted quick enough to contain the outbreak.

All forms of transport were banned between Turkey and Iran as of 5pm local time, however flights from Turkey to Iran were still being permitted, confirmed Turkish health minister, Fahrettin Koca.

Officials in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, which has a long frontier with Iran, declared an emergency and suspended almost all traffic across the Taftan border crossing.

Iraq has also barred Iranians from entering the country, impacting thousands of religious pilgrims and businessmen.

Iran confirmed three new deaths and 15 cases today, taking the number of those infected up to 43 – the highest number reported outside of the epicentre of the outbreak, China.

The first cases were reported in the Iranian city of Qom on Wednesday, which has rapidly increased in less than a week, to people in four other cities, including the capital, Tehran.

Officials quickly closed schools, universities, theatres, cinemas and events including several football matches and the public are being urged to mostly stay at home.

Students who live in university accommodation were asked to return to their home towns and continue classes through the internet where possible.

‘If the situation gets any worse city staff will be expected to convert to teleworkers,’ said the mayor of Tehran, Pirouz Hanachi.

At least 230 hospitals have reportedly been assigned to treat the virus but some medical workers have complained of a lack of equipment in such centres.

An anonymous physician based in Tehran, told Al Jazeera: ‘They [authorities] are not prepared to tackle the disease at all. Even hospitals are not well-equipped.’

Iranian officials have also been battling to contain the false information spreading on social media, complaining its enemies shared scaremongering stories about whether the public is being told the truth about the scale of the crisis.

Iran’s Health Minister Saeed Namaki told state TV that officials were nearly certain the virus came from China to Qom in central Iran.

He also said that among those who’d died from the virus was a merchant who regularly shuttled between the two countries using indirect flights in recent weeks, after Iran stopped direct passenger flights to China.

The minister did not say when the person had returned from China to Iran, nor what steps health officials had taken to quarantine and check on those he’d come into contact with.

Namaki, however, defended the government’s handling of the outbreak, saying it was being ‘transparent’ and would make face-masks and sanitizers available for Iranians, amid concerns that stocks were running low in the capital’s pharmacies.

‘We obviously do not recommend traveling to Qom and other pilgrimage cities,’ Namaki added, noting that the city is a major destination for pilgrims inside Iran and from abroad.

He added that Iran has also set up 36 screening stations at different ports of entry to the country to check for possibly infected travelers.