Satellite images of mass graves in the city of Qom suggest Iran’s coronavirus outbreak is even more serious than the authorities are admitting, Britain’s The Guardian reported on Friday. The pictures, first published by the New York Times, show the excavation of a new section in a cemetery on the northern fringe of the city in late February, and two long trenches dug, of a total length of 100 yards, by the end of the month. They confirm the worst fears about the extent of the epidemic and the government’s subsequent cover-up, said The Guardian. On February 24, at the time the trenches were being dug, a legislator from Qom, 120 km south of Tehran, accused the health ministry of lying about the scale of the outbreak, saying there had already been 50 deaths in the city, at a time when the ministry was claiming only 12 people had died from the virus nationwide. The deputy health minister, Iraj Harirchi, held a press conference to deny the allegations, but he wiped his face and eyes, and was clearly sweating and coughing as he did so. The next day, Harirchi confirmed that he was infected with the virus. Since then, lawmakers, a former diplomat and a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, have died. The latest suspected case of infection was Ali Akbar Velayati, who advises the supreme leader on foreign policy. Iran announced on Friday that the new coronavirus has claimed another 85 lives, bringing to 514 the overall number of deaths in the country. Across the country, at least 1,289 infected people have been added to the list of confirmed patients. "The total number of patients has therefore reached 11,364 cases," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said. Amir Afkhami, who has written a history of Iran’s experience of cholera epidemics, A Modern Contagion, said the mass graves add weight to suspicions the real mortality figures are much higher and are still being covered by the leadership. “It doesn’t surprise me that they are now trying to create mass graves and trying to hide the actual extent of the impact of the disease,” The Guardian quoted Afkhami, an associate professor at George Washington University, as saying.