Iran’s health minister issued a dire warning to Iranians, claiming a new patient succumbs to the coronavirus every 10 minutes in the country.

Kianush Jahanpur, the spokesman for Iran’s Health Ministry, said in a Friday tweet that people are dying in large numbers as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the country and healthcare facilities become overwhelmed.

“Based on our information, every ten minutes one person dies from the coronavirus and some 50 people become infected with the virus every hour in Iran,” Jahanpur wrote.

The statement comes after weeks of confusion over the actual numbers of those suffering from COVID-19. Iran claims that almost 20,000 people have been infected and that about 14,000 have died, although that number is disputed. Dissentient voices claim to have tallied more than 7,000 deaths among the growing cases of coronavirus in Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s spokesman Ali Rabiei recently acknowledged that the numbers could be greater than what the regime has claimed.

“The death toll may be higher, and the test results for [the victims] could have been wrong,” Rabiei said. “Some have died, and we might not have known it was due to coronavirus. There may be some shortcomings in the figures, and sometimes you may see a jump in our announcement.”

Earlier this week, Iranian state media warned that, if residents ignore health warnings, millions of people could die across the country. As the pandemic worsens, Iran has taken stronger measures to stop the spread of the flulike disease, even sending armed forces to clear the streets.

Worldwide, there have been more than 274,000 cases of the coronavirus, about 88,000 recoveries, and more than 11,300 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.