Iran’s Zarif tested positive for coronavirus, has now recovered: FM

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif contracted and later recovered from coronavirus, a foreign ministry official said on Sunday.

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Zarif tested positive for coronavirus once and negative on two separate occasions after that, state news agency IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh as saying.

Khatibzadeh did not say when Zarif tested positive for coronavirus, why his diagnosis was not made public until now, or when he last tested negative for the virus.

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

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Most recently, Iran’s Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf had tested positive for the virus last week.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, Iran’s former ambassador to Syria and former advisor to Zarif, died of the virus in March.

Iran is the country worst-hit in the Middle East by coronavirus, with the government reporting 35,298 deaths and 620,491 confirmed cases as of Sunday.