Iran has at least 1,500 cases of coronavirus and 66 people on the official death toll

The World Health Organisation sent an emergency team into Iran last night as fears set in that its coronavirus epidemic was spiralling out of control.

The Iranian authorities raised the acknowledged number of cases by more than 50 per cent to 1,501. The official number of dead increased by 12 to 66, the most of any country outside China.

Among the deaths announced yesterday was a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Mohammad Mirmohammadi, 71, a member of the Expediency Council which oversees Iran’s political system, is the most senior figure to have been confirmed to have died from Covid-19.

However, it was feared that this was still a huge underestimate of the impact of the virus, which has rapidly spread from