Represents an 18 percent increase in deaths from the day before TEHRAN: Iran says the new coronavirus has killed 54 more people, raising the death toll to 291 amid 8,042 cases in the Islamic Republic. That’s according to Kianoush Jahanpour, a Health Ministry spokesman, who spoke in a live, televised news conference on Tuesday. More coronavirus cases emerge in the Middle East as precautions step up It represented an 18 percent increase in deaths from the day before and 12 percent more confirmed cases. Iran is the hardest-hit country in the Mideast by the new coronavirus, which sickens but largely does not kill those afflicted. Across the region, there are over 8,600 confirmed cases of the virus.