UPDATE - Iran's coronavirus death toll reaches 26

REVISED HEADLINE, DECK; UPDATES DEATH TOLL, NUMBER OF CASES

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) - Iran on Thursday confirmed 26 deaths from the coronavirus outbreak, along with 245 cases of people infected.

The country's Health Ministry said another four people died from the coronavirus on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the official IRNA news agency said three more people had died from the coronavirus, raising the death toll to 22.

According to IRNA, the virus, also known as COVID-19, has so far spread across 20 Iranian provinces, while 11 are currently free of infection.

On Wednesday, the ministry said it had no plans to quarantine any cities but instead would quarantine individuals.

Iran is one of over 35 countries, including the U.S., U.K., Singapore, France, Russia, Spain and India, which account for the nearly 80,000 COVID-19 cases confirmed around the world.

The global death toll is nearly 2,800, and China, where the outbreak originated, is the worst hit, with more than 78,000 cases and over 2,700 fatalities.

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak an international health emergency.



* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara.