Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei has said that coronavirus is 'not that big a deal' even though the country's death toll has hit 77 and one of his senior advisers has died of the disease.
Khamenei called on Iranians to pray against the virus 'as prayer can solve many problems.'
As of today, 77 in the country have died from the virus and there are 2,336 confirmed cases.
One of Khamenei's senior advisors Mohammad Mirmohammadi, a member of the Expediency Council which is hand-picked by the Supreme Leader, died aged 71 in a Tehran hospital yesterday after falling sick with the virus.
'This calamity is not that big of a deal, and that there have been bigger ones in the past,' Khamenei was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency today.
'I do not want to underestimate this issue of course, but let us not overestimate it either,' he said.
He added that it will affect the country for a while and then be over.
Khamenei also urged citizens to follow the health authorities' instructions and praised their 'honesty' and 'transparency,' saying they have been keeping the public up to date since day one.
Mohammad Mirmohammadi is one of several regime members to have caught the virus, after vice president Masoumeh Ebtekar and visibly struggling health minister Iraj Harirchi were also infected.
It comes as the Iranian regime was accused of 'endangering the lives of Iranians and the world' after alarming videos of worshippers licking a shrine emerged online.
There are also fears that Iran is covering up the true scale of the crisis, with official figures showing a suspiciously high death rate - suggesting there may be more infections than the regime is willing to admit.
The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), has claimed that the death toll is as high as 650 - nearly ten times the official count.
State media announced Mirmohammadi's death yesterday morning in the virus's most direct blow to the regime so far.
The Expediency Council which he sat on advises the Ayatollah and helps to settle disputes between the Supreme Leader and the Iranian parliament.
He previously served as the head of the presidency under former Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Khamenei, now the country's supreme leader.
Mirmohammadi's mother had died of the coronavirus in recent days as well, Iranian media reported.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
