A nurse cares for patients in a ward dedicated to people infected with the coronavirus at Forqani Hospital in Qom, Iran, on February 26. Credit: Mohammad Mohsenzadeh/Mizan News Agency/AP

The Iranian city of Qom is facing a shortage of hospital beds for suspected coronavirus cases, with officials saying they had been forced to use tents.

“The threat posed by this illness is still not taken seriously by the population in this area,” said Mohsen Orouji, Director of the Qom Province Crisis Management Center, according to Iranian news agency Entekhab.

“The most important weapon in our arsenal of mitigation remains the cooperation of the population,” he added, saying that schools, daycare centers, universities and seminaries in Qom were closed.

Ali Abrazi, Vice Chancellor of the University of Qom’s School of Medical Sciences, said five hospitals in Qom were facilitating suspected patients but there was still a shortage of beds, Entekhab reported.

“We were forced to stand up tent hospitals,” he said.