For weeks, Joseph Zuie and his siblings watched anxiously from a world away, glued to their phones for news of their parents.

The North York couple had been in Iran visiting family since November, long before anyone had heard of COVID-19.

But the coronavirus outbreak soon became all their family back in Canada could think of.

On Wednesday, Joseph got the news no child wants to hear: His father had died in a hospital in Tehran.

As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread rapidly in Iran, at least 200 Canadians remain stuck there, stranded as flights out are cancelled and land borders shut — weeks after evacuations ware organized for citizens stuck inside the quarantine in Wuhan, China, and for Canadians on the stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship.

On Thursday, Ottawa upgraded its travel advisory for Iran to the highest level warning against all travel there. But for the families of the dozens of Canadians left in the country, efforts to help their loved ones can get out have become increasingly difficult — a challenge made even more complicated by the fact that Canada severed diplomatic ties with Iran in 2012.

Joseph’s dad, Alireza Zuie, was a retired toothbrush manufacturer and father of three. He was 63 and, according to his son, did not have any underlying health conditions.

It happened quickly, Joseph said. According to his mother, Fatemeh, his father was taken to the ICU on Wednesday night local time with what appeared to be a lung infection. He tested negative for the novel coronavirus and his official cause of death was listed as a heart attack.

“The death certificate also says, ‘suspected to be infected with COVID-19,’” Zuie said in a brief phone interview after learning of his father’s death. “They don’t give you clear answers,” he said.

Many families in Iran are now finding themselves in a similar spot, he said, watching relatives die of symptoms that seem related to coronavirus, but appear not to be officially listed.

Joseph’s mother still in Tehran and doesn’t want to go to the hospital because she is worried might get sick.

“It’s a tough time,” he said. “I’m just hoping that I can bring back my mom safe and healthy.”

As of Friday, Iran had officially announced 4,747 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 124 deaths.

Researchers at the University of Toronto say the high number of cases exported from Iran to other countries suggest the actual toll of the outbreak is far higher. (The research, published in late February before the official toll had begun to rise, estimated that the true number of cases was at that time closer to 18,000).

Many of Canada’s nearly 50 confirmed cases have been linked to travel to Iran, or contact with a traveller from Iran, including at least 11 in Ontario.

And reports from Iran itself are hardly reassuring: This week, state media reported about eight per cent of members of the country’s parliament have now tested positive.

Pouyan Tabasinejad, vice-president of the Iranian Canadian Congress, says his group has emails indicating at least 200 Canadians are trying to get out of the country.

The congress has been calling for a secure airlift and quarantine of Canadians trapped in Iran, similar to what was done for citizens in Wuhan or on the Diamond Princess.

This is not only the right thing to do, Tabasinejad said, it makes good public health sense. Otherwise, he said, a few people will find their way back to Canada using less safe channels.

Instead of a controlled evacuation, “we’re getting a constant trickle of, one person here one person there, and they’re infected,” he said.

“They’re just going to come if they’re left to their own devices, it’s extremely dangerous.”

Many of Canada’s nearly 50 cases have been linked to travel to Iran. On Friday officials announced s a man in his 50s who had travelled to Iran and arrived back in Toronto on Feb. 27 had tested positive.

Canada has one of the largest populations of Iranians outside of Iran, especially clustered around Toronto, where the community is nearly 100,000 strong, according to the 2016 census.

There are no direct flights between Tehran and Toronto, so any prospective travellers must first transit through other countries.

Natasha Nystrom, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said in an email that their “thoughts are with the family and friends of the Canadian citizen who died in Iran.”

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She said consular officials are providing assistance to the person’s family, but did not provide more information, citing the Privacy Act.

There are 722 Canadians in Iran who have voluntarily registered with the Canadians Abroad service, and Ottawa has received 225 inquiries relating to the current situation in Iran, she said.

“Given the current geographic spread of COVID-19, Canada does not intend to provide any additional charter flights for assisted departure operations,” Nystrom said,

She also urged people to “consider leaving by commercial means while these are still available.”

Canadian citizens leaving Iran “must carefully check entry and exit requirements for the countries through which they may be transiting,” she said. “If a Canadian citizen should develop signs and symptoms of COVID-19, they should contact their health care provider or local public health authorities as soon as possible. The sooner health care providers are contacted, the better the chances are for recovery.”

Canadians in Iran can contact the Canadian embassy in Ankara, Turkey, or call Global Affairs’s 24-hour emergency hotline in Ottawa, she said.

Canadians in other virus hot spots, such as South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Italy, can still find flights home.

Meanwhile, a second cruise ship, the Grand Princess, has 235 Canadians on the manifest and has seen passengers test positive. It remains docked of San Francisco.

Zuie said he has not heard back Global Affairs in Ankara since he informed them of his father’s death.

Earlier in the week, before his father’s death, Zuie told the Star the situation in Iran was “getting worse every minute.”

He said his parents had told him supplies, including prescription medications, had become very hard to find, forcing his mother to search from pharmacy to pharmacy. People were trying to stay inside and self-isolate, he said, and a public ambulance company had refused to take his dad to the hospital over fears about the virus.

If they waited too long, “God forbid we might lose him,” he said at the time.

Joseph relayed the news of his father’s death in an email to the Star Thursday morning.

“I guess our story didn’t have a happy ending,” he wrote.

Clarification— March 9, 2020: This article has been updated to clarify the situation of flights between Tehran and Toronto.

With files from Tonda MacCharles

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