Just reading up on iran.
It's very difficult to get anything verified, but there are a number of citizen journalists who are reporting on inconsistent news and leaks. Needs to be stressed that these are unreliable but I think they do point to a big cover up in progress.
irantrue.com/coronavirus-in-iran-two-confirmed-dead/
Coronavirus in Iran: Two Confirmed Dead
There were reports of cases in different cities but unfortunately like any other crisis, Islamic Republic regime has chosen to lie and deny everything. There are many reasons for this behavior which we’ll get to later on, but for now, I go through what we do know about the whole situation in Iran, specifically.
Prior to the 41st anniversary of 1979 IR revolution on Feb 11, unconfirmed reports came out about 35 cases of Coronavirus patients. In the leaked letter, there was request of stopping import of food and materials from China and all travels to/from the country. However, because regime wanted to avoid panic and maximum participation in their show of pro-regime demonstration, they denied everything. A few days later, another report said a few suspected patients were admitted in Gilan province, officials denied, again!
And
Two days ago, a letter was leaked from Interior Minister to the Health Minister stating that because Fri Feb 21 is the “election” day, following orders of the Supreme Leader and Supreme National Security Council, do not release any information about Coronavirus cases in the country. After this letter was circulated in social media, the Interior Ministry issued a statement denying the letter existed and said they would launch an investigation and bring the person posting it to justice!
Fast forward, morning of Feb 19, Ministry of Health Public Office confirmed two patients showing positive results for Coronavirus. A couple of hours later, they announced both of those people have died. Strange, right? Well, not really! According to the brother of one of these patients, he was admitted to the hospital a WEEK ago with respiratory issues. After 3 days, he gets worse and x-ray of the lungs show total lung failure. He is intubated and moved to ICU. The head of the ICU tells the brother, “we’ve had several cases like these, the prognosis is not good. I don’t know what kind of infection it is because it doesn’t respond to any antibiotic/antiviral.”
The brother tells the doctor, “but he hasn’t traveled anywhere and have no prior illness.” The doctor responds, neither did the other cases. When his condition deteriorates, he asks the doctor to test his brother for Coronavirus. The doctor says, “we haven’t done this test before.” He orders the test and it comes back positive, this morning!
Now obviously the tone of the article is very much anti-regime so there is a potential agenda to discredit the regime.
But here's another earlier report which does suggest there may well be a much bigger and wider problem.
From 12th Feb
shgl.tv/2020/02/12/iran-woman-dies-of-suspected-coronavirus-infection/
Iran woman dies of suspected coronavirus infection
An Iranian woman has died of suspected coronavirus infection, the state daily newspaper IRAN reported on Wednesday, without citing any sources.
The 63-year-old woman died in a Tehran hospital on Monday, the newspaper said, and an investigation has been ordered into the cause of her death.
A spokesman for Iran’s Health Ministry, Kianush Jahanpour, denied the report
“There have been no cases of coronavirus in Iran,” he said.
Iranian health authorities have repeatedly said there were no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country.
It does suggest there are no confirmed cases, but this might be purely down to failing to test to confirm a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
There are rumours that Qom has been shut down with riot police sent to the area amid fears of protests / unrest ahead of tomorrow's election.
At this stage this is all questionable but I think there will be a lot leaking out over the next few days as it becomes apparent how out of control the situation in Iran is. Given the lack of travel history of the two who have died, it does suggest it is out of control.