Two Iranians who were that country’s first cases of coronavirus have died, health officials in Qom announced on Wednesday. 

The deaths were also confirmed by health ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur in a tweet just hours after confirmation that the pair had tested positive for the respiratory illness. Earlier, the ministry had said the patients had been put into isolation. 

The highly contagious novel coronavirus emerged in China in December 2019, with the death toll there exceeding 2,000 for the first time on Wednesday, though the number of new cases has slowed. 

The outbreak has led to the introduction of a series of major quarantine measures in China, as well as travel restrictions in and out of the country. Several countries, including the US and UK, have evacuated their citizens from Hubei, the province worst affected.

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