Iran's foreign minister contracts COVID, goes into quarantine

TEHRAN

Iran's foreign minister has contracted the coronavirus, said reports late on Monday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh confirmed the news, saying Hossein Amir-Abdollahian had immediately quarantined himself.

Amir-Abdollahian is "feeling well" and "working remotely," he added.

The news comes days after Iran's top diplomat hosted a multilateral summit of Afghanistan's neighbors in the Iranian capital Tehran, followed by a series of bilateral meetings with many of his counterparts.

Amir-Abdollahian has reportedly taken two shots of Iran's locally made Baraket vaccine.

While Iran has seen a significant drop in new infections and deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in recent weeks, there are growing concerns in some provinces of a sixth wave.

Since taking power in August, the new Iranian government has ramped up the vaccine rollout. About 52.8 million people have received at least one dose while 35.2 million have been administered both doses. Iran’s population is some 85 million.

With Amir-Abdollahian going into quarantine, there is little likelihood of him visiting India in the coming weeks for a meeting of the countries’ joint economic commission.