A vice president of Iran confirmed she has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
As more than 100 new cases of coronavirus hit the Middle Eastern nation, an Iranian state newspaper broke the news Thursday morning that Masoumeh Ebtekar had been infected by the disease, according to the Associated Press. Ebtekar is a vice president of the Islamic Republic and is best known in the West as the spokeswoman “Mary” during negotiations between the United States and hostage-takers during the 1979 hostage crisis in Tehran, when 52 American diplomats and citizens were held for 444 days inside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The news comes as coronavirus cases in Iran have risen sharply over the last week. Iran’s Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi confirmed he was sick with the illness on Tuesday, and at least 25 have died in the country.
Ebtekar is the vice president of Iran for women and family affairs. She previously led Iran’s Department of Environment between 1997 to 2005, making her only the third female Cabinet member in Iran’s history and the first since the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Governments around the world are scrambling to deal with the epidemic. On Thursday, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that schools in his country will close next week, and Italy has quarantined thousands across the country due to the disease as another 400 cases were confirmed.
