International flights to and from Iran have largely been canceled due to the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country with international airports conducting only evacuation flights, Reza Jaafar Zadeh, the spokesman for the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, told Sputnik on Friday

TEHRAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) International flights to and from Iran have largely been canceled due to the ongoing outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country with international airports conducting only evacuation flights, Reza Jaafar Zadeh, the spokesman for the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, told Sputnik on Friday.

"There are now no flights at [Tehran's] Imam Khomeini airport other than authorized flights; they are flights without passengers, where planes are going to return Iranian travelers only, like the one conducted today concerning Iranian citizens in the United Arab Emirates," Zadeh said.

Earlier in the day, the Iranian authorities announced that they had agreed with the United Arab Emirates to send planes to airlift Iranian citizens out of the country after they became stranded due to the suspension of flights between the two nations.

Zadeh confirmed that the planes that were currently at the Tehran airport were empty, as Turkey, Kuwait, Iraq and other neighboring countries had canceled their flights to Iran.

Iran also canceled Friday prayers to quell the spread of the virus, with most surrounding nations recording their first cases of infection in people arriving from the country.

Iran's health authorities announced that as of Friday, 34 people with the infection have died out of 338 infected. An additional 49 others have recovered.