Iran: More than 10k health care workers infected with virus

The coronavirus has infected more than 10,000 health care workers in hard-hit Iran, news outlets reported Thursday. The report carried by semiofficial news agencies, including ISNA, cited Deputy Health Minister Qassem Janbabaei, who did not elaborate. However, reports earlier in the week put the number of infected health care workers at only 800. Iran says more than 100 of those workers have died.

Iran on Thursday put the number of dead from the virus at 7,249, or 66 more than Wednesday. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said there were more than 129,000 confirmed cases of the virus, including 2,392 more than Wednesday. Iran has the highest number of casualties from the disease in the region.