Publish Date: 9 May 2020 - 10:47

TEHRAN, May 09 (MNA) – The World Health Organization has offered more than 100,000 COVID-19 diagnostic tests to Iran in continuation of its support for affected countries.

Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour revealed the news in a tweet late on Friday, however, he didn’t mention the exact date when the consignment has been received.

He said that WHO representative in Iran Christoph Hamelmann has paid a visit to the Pasteur Institute of Iran. During the visit, Hamelmann has appreciated the efforts in the past months to improve the country’s capacity for carrying out diagnostic tests.

Christoph Hamelmann (C) visiting the Pasteur Institute of Iran

Iran is one of the hardest hit by the novel coronavirus with nearly 105,000 infections and 6,541 deaths as of Friday noon. Although the country was relying on foreign test kits in the first two months of the outbreak, knowledge-based firms and Defense Ministry soon entered the stage and opened test kit production lines to fulfill the country’s needs.

Jahanpour said on Friday that more than 544,000 tests have been taken across the country. Iran has also started exporting test kits to other countries such as Turkey and Germany.

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