Coronavirus: Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf contracts COVID-19

Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has tested positive for coronavirus, he said in a tweet early Wednesday.

“One of my office staff got infected with coronavirus, and I received my test result which was positive at midnight,” Ghalibaf wrote on Twitter.

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He added in the same tweet that he is currently in quarantine.

Iranian lawmakers in May elected Ghalibaf who is a former Revolutionary Guards air force commander as speaker of parliament for one year.

Coronavirus has infected and killed a number of Iranian officials since it reached the country in February.

Earlier this month, Iran’s nuclear chief and former foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi tested positive for the virus.

Prior to that, Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, an Iranian vice president and the head of the country’s Planning and Budget Organization, tweeted that he tested positive for coronavirus.

Iran is the country worst-hit in the Middle East by the virus, with the government reporting 33,299 deaths and 581,824 confirmed cases as of Tuesday.

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