[custom_adv] Other officials have also contracted the disease, including the deputy health minister in charge of anti-coronavirus task force. [custom_adv] On Feb. 24, he appeared in a televised news conference mopping sweat from his face and wearing no protective mask, before announcing the next day he had caught the virus. [custom_adv] Public gatherings, including Friday prayers in and other cities, have been canceled, schools closed and crews of cleaners dispatched to disinfect trains, buses and gathering places. [custom_adv] In a sign that a belated government response may be kicking into gear, Iran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, has said its hospitals will now be dedicated to admitting coronavirus patients and that they are ready to set up makeshift facilities with a further 8,000 beds. [custom_adv] But medical professionals fear this is too little too late and that the delayed response has already enabled the virus to spread unchecked. [custom_adv] “Officials did not confirm the virus had reached for one month, and then underestimated the impacts of the disease by telling people it is like a flu,” said a doctor in Khuzestan province, who has been treating coronavirus patients and expects to see a massive increase in deaths in the province later this week. [custom_adv] “The more the officials are scared of scaring people, the more the virus will spread and the country will be further paralysed,” the doctor said. [custom_adv] The first cases of the virus were confirmed in the holy city of Qom, home to 1.2m people, on 19 February but more than two weeks later the Islamic regime is still refusing to quarantine the town. [custom_adv] Rather than avoid Qom, many religious people have continued to travel there. [custom_adv] Some have shared videos online of pilgrims licking the gold-plated lattice windows that surround Qom’s holy tomb in the belief that the sacred site will cure infections rather than pass on the virus.