In a speech given on 28 February Modarresi said that, “it is obvious that the spread of this virus is an act of Allah...the spread of coronavirus began in China...the authorities in that country are tyrannical and they laid siege to more than a million Muslims. The journalists of that country began to mock the niqab of Muslim women and they forced Muslim men to eat pork and drink wine”.

“The same niqab that they mocked has been forced upon them by Allah by the means of state authorities and officials”, said the cleric.

He added that, “Allah sent a disease upon them and it laid siege to 40 million Chinese...Islam forbids eating insects but Chinese mocked it, and there you have it, this disease spread from the world of animals - be it bats, ants or snakes, the result is the same”.