“As one of the pioneering East Mediterranean states and for the first time in the world, we will prevent coronavirus pandemic instead of waiting. Implementation of this plan will start on Tuesday with 300,000 treatment and hygiene teams,” Namaki said on Sunday night.

He added that the number of recovered coronavirus patients is increasing in Iran every day.

“We will go house by house to diagnose suspicious cases as soon as possible and if any suspicious case is diagnosed, the person will be sent to the treatment centers,” Namaki said.

The number of people infected with coronavirus in Iran increased to 978, Iranian Health Ministry Spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said on Sunday, adding that 54 patients have died so far.

He added that 175 coronavirus patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals across the country.

Reports from different cities and towns of Iran indicate strenuous efforts by the officials to help the coronavirus patients and prevent an epidemic.

According to the latest reports, the novel coronavirus has killed over 3,000 people worldwide, the vast majority in mainland China. There have been more than 88,000 global cases, with infections on every continent except Antarctica.

The coronavirus is spreading in the Middle East, Europe and other parts of the world, as Brazil confirmed its first case in Latin America, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.

Washington state health officials said Saturday a person has died of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. It was the first reported coronavirus death in the United States.

The Iranian health ministry had said last Tuesday that over 700,000 sanitation packs, including equipment to prevent coronavirus-infection have been transferred to Qom province, the first place where the COVID 19-infection was diagnosed, and are being distributed among people.

As a preventive measure, Iranian authorities have ordered closure of educational and cultural institutions across the country as of Monday.

Tehran’s municipality announced that all the city’s public places, including the metro trains and buses, are being disinfected at the end of the line every hour as part of attempts to contain the spread of the virus.

Head of Food and Drug Administration Mohammad Reza Shanehsaz also said that pharmacies will no longer be allowed to sell protective masks and that masks will be distributed among the population via government-run centers free of charge, with the priority given to virus-hit provinces.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stressed Iran’s high capabilities to prevent an epidemic of novel coronavirus infection.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting last Wednesday to brief a WHO representative and the foreign ambassadors residing in Tehran on the latest preventive and therapeutic measures taken by the country to contain COVID-19, as the novel coronavirus is called.

In comments at the meeting, the WHO representative said Iran has the necessary fundamental capabilities to tackle the epidemic, and that Tehran’s performance has been as “successful and exemplary” in the region and the world.

The Iranian Health Ministry officials, who were also present at the meeting, reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to the international health regulations and standards.

Iran enjoys all the technical and specialized capabilities needed to battle the coronavirus, they stressed.