The dean of Medical Science University of Qom, Mohammad-Reza Ghadir, announced: “Two patients suffering from severe respiratory problems whose tests revealed positive for coronavirus have passed away.”

According to Ghadir: “In the initial tests it became clear that the two were corona positive, but the results of the genetic tests have not been revealed yet.”

“One hospital has been prepared for the viral diseases in Qom city and another hospital will be evacuated as a backup.”

Earlier today, the spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Health, Kianoush Jahanpour, had reported the two positive cases of coronavirus in Qom city.

Jahanpour announced that in the past two days, several suspected cases of coronavirus have been witnessed in Qom, and as soon as they received these reports, special teams to identify contagious diseases and quick response teams have positioned themselves across the city and the suspected individuals have been isolated and tested.

However, until today, Iranian officials were denying any cases of coronavirus in Iran. Alireza Raisi, the Deputy Minister of Health had also denied any cases of coronavirus in Iran earlier on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, a letter which appeared to be from the Ministry of Health to President Rouhani was published which said there have been 35 cases of coronavirus in Iran. Ministry of Health rejected the authenticity of the letter.

China has announced that the number of victims of coronavirus has passed 2000 and the number of infected has reached 74185.

So far 900 cases of coronavirus have been reported outside of China.