The Iranian government denied claims that 50 people have died in the Iranian city of Qom from the new coronavirus this month, which had been reported by Iran's ILNA news agency.Iran's deputy health minister denied accusations that the government is covering up the deaths, as the number of confirmed deaths there rose to 12.

A parliamentarian for Qom, the city at the centre of Iran's Covid-19 outbreak, accused the authorities of lying about the full extent of the problem.

Ahmad Amirabadi-Farahani said there had been 50 deaths in Qom alone.

That was rejected by the minister, who vowed to resign if it could be proven that even half that number had died.

"I categorically deny this information," Iraj Harirchi told a news conference.

"This is not the time for political confrontations. The coronavirus is a national problem," he added.

The 50-person death toll is significantly higher than the latest number of confirmed cases of infections, which Iranian officials reported a few hours earlier, and stood at just 12 deaths out of 47 cases, according to state TV.A lawmaker from Qom, Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani, was quoted in ILNA saying that more than 250 people are quarantined in the city, and added that the 50 deaths date back to the 13 February.The first officially reported cases of the virus and its first deaths on 19 February.Speaking to ILNA, Farahani said the situation in Qom is "not good"."I think performance of the administration in controlling the virus has not been successful," he said, referring to the government of President Hassan Rouhani "None of the nurses have access to proper protective gears," Farahani said, adding that some health care specialists had left the city."So far, I haven't seen any particular action to confront [coronavirus] by the administration."The new coronavirus originated in China sometime around December and has since swept across the world, with cases reported in the UAE Egypt , as well as Asia.There are concerns that clusters in Iran, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread.Authorities in Iran have closed schools across much of the country for a second day as neighbouring countries reported infections from travellers from Iran, prompting several to shut their borders to Iranian citizens.The number of deaths compared to the number of confirmed infections from the virus is higher in Iran than in any other country, as compared to the ratios in China and South Korea, where the outbreak is far more widespread.