More than 200 Brits test positive for coronavirus

LONDON/TEHRAN: More than 200 people have now tested positive for coronavirus in the UK, the Department of Health has said. In total, 206 people had tested positive for Covid-19 as of 7am on Saturday, an increase of 42 from 164 cases confirmed on Friday. The Department of Health said more than 21,000 people had been tested for the virus.

The public has been told to prepare itself in case “social distancing” policies are needed to help contain the spread of the virus. On Friday, it was confirmed that a man in his early 80s had become the second person to die in the UK after testing positive for coronavirus.

The man, who had underlying health conditions, died on Thursday while being treated at Milton Keynes University Hospital. On Thursday evening another patient, reported to be a woman in her 70s, became the first person in the UK to die after being diagnosed with Covid-19 while at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading.

Meanwhile, an Iranian lawmaker died from the novel coronavirus on Saturday, state news agency IRNA reported, one of several officials to succumb to the illness in the epidemic-hit country.

Fatemeh Rahbar, 55, was a conservative MP and had recently been elected to the parliament from the capital Tehran, the agency said. She is the second lawmaker killed by the virus in Iran and one of seven politicians and government officials who have died in the outbreak since the country reported its first cases in mid-February.

Iran has been scrambling to contain the rapid spread of the virus. On Saturday, Iran reported 21 new deaths from the novel coronavirus and 1,076 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall tolls to 145 dead and 5,823 infected.

“More than 16,000 people are currently hospitalised as suspect cases,” health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference as he announced the tolls. He added that 1,669 of confirmed cases have recovered from the illness.

Rahbar was among the top candidates in Tehran for the conservatives, who overwhelmingly won February’s general election marked by the lowest turnout in the Islamic republic’s history.

Iran has closed schools and universities, suspended major cultural and sporting events and reduced working hours across the country to slow the contagion, which has spread to all of its 31 provinces.