[custom_adv] ran is emerging as the center of an outbreak of the new coronavirus across the Middle East, where cases in at least five countries have been linked to patients who traveled to in recent weeks, authorities said. [custom_adv] In Iran, 139 people have contracted the virus, including the deputy health minister and a prominent member of parliament. [custom_adv] Nineteen people have died, according to the Health Ministry — the largest death toll from the virus outside China, where it first appeared. [custom_adv] The government has struggled to contain the spread of infections after reporting the first confirmed cases in the holy Shiite city of Qom last week. [custom_adv] Since then, the virus has appeared in multiple cities, and infections in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon and Oman have been traced back to Iran. [custom_adv] But even as regional governments moved to control the outbreak, authorities came under fire for what critics said is an inadequate response to the threat. [custom_adv] Officials have rejected calls to quarantine major cities and have allowed communal prayer services to continue in places such as Qom, where the virus first emerged. [custom_adv] Nurses and other medical personnel have complained in interviews and on social media that authorities were preventing health workers from wearing masks and were forcing staff to buy their own gloves.