Virus claims 20,000 lives across ME

PARIS: The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed more than 20,000 people across the Middle East, half of them in Iran, according to an AFP tally at 1000 GMT Sunday based on official tolls.

But despite having 907,736 reported infections and 20,005 deaths from the Covid-19 illness, the Middle East has been relatively lightly hit by the virus which has killed over half a million people across the globe.

Iran, which has been struggling to contain the outbreak since announcing its first cases in February, has reported more than 12,829 deaths and 257,303 infections, according to Sunday’s official figures.