Fatemeh Rahbar, a newly-elected member of the Iranian Parliament, has died of coronavirus on Friday, according to Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.
Rahbar, 56, had just won a seat in the parliament in the most recent vote in February. She tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this week and was admitted to a Tehran hospital. However, her condition quickly worsened and she went into a coma on Thursday before passing away the next day. Rahbar was the first female politician in Iran to die from coronavirus.
On Friday, Iran’s Ministry of Health reported that the number of confirmed cases had jumped by 1,234 over just one day and had almost reached 4,800. The national coronavirus death toll had increased to 124 over the same period.