Iran has temporarily freed more than 54,000 prisoners to help combat the spread of the coronavirus in packed jails.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said the inmates were granted furlough after testing negative for the virus and posting bail., reports the BBC.

But 'security prisoners' sentenced to more than five years will not be let out.

Iran's supreme leader has also ordered the military to assist health officials in fighting the virus, which authorities said has killed 77 people.

Iranian doctors treat a coronavirus patient in a Tehran hospital as the country struggles to contain the oubtreak. (AP)

Among the dead are a confidant of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's former ambassador to the Vatican and a recently elected member of Parliament.

Iran's judiciary chief, Ebrahim Raisi, said some people are stockpiling medical supplies for profit and urged prosecutors to show no mercy.

"Hoarding sanitising items is playing with people's lives, and it is not ignorable," he said.

Iran stands alone in how the virus has affected its government , even compared to hard-hit China, the epicentre of the outbreak.

Those sick include Vice-President Masoumeh Ebtekar, better known as "Sister Mary," the English-speaking spokeswoman for the students who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and sparked the 444-day hostage crisis, state media reported.

Also sick is Iraj Harirchi, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus.

Iraj Harirchi,left, the head of an Iranian government task force on the coronavirus, has been infected as the country struggles to contain the virus. (AP)

Meanwhile, the temporary release of prisoners has raised hopes of an early release for the jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, according to a British MP.

In a tweet, Tulip Siddiq cited the Iranian ambassador to the UK as saying that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe "may be released on furlough today or tomorrow".

Her husband said last week that he believed she had been infected with coronavirus at Tehran's notorious Evin prison and that officials were refusing to test her.

The number of countries hit by the virus has reached at least 70, with Ukraine and Morocco reporting their first cases. More than half of those infected have recovered from the illness already