The Islamic Republic of Iran has become the

latest Asian country to confirm its first two cases of the novel coronavirus

(COVID-19) since the deadly outbreak began.

Though the nationalities of those infected weren’t

immediately disclosed, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the two

cases of COVID-19, the first in the country, were confirmed by Iranian

authorities on Wednesday (Feb. 19).

An official in the Iranian Ministry of

Health noted that the two confirmed cases were detected in the central province

of Qom.

In the meantime, Iran has applied additional

safety measures on arrival flights at its airports to control a possible spread

of the coronavirus.

Iran is the third Middle Eastern country,

after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, to report confirmed cases of COVID-19.

Outside of the China epicentre, the Wuhan

coronavirus has been confirmed in: Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Thailand,

South Korea, Malaysia, Germany, Vietnam, Australia, US, France, UK, Canada, UAE,

India, Philippines, Italy, Russia, Spain, Belgium, Cambodia, Egypt, Finland,

Nepal, Sri Lanka and Sweden.