Addressing a video press conference, Raisi said according to the studies carried out by “a strong team of epidemiologists” the first cases of COVID-19 in Iran “were obviously and specifically associated with … a number of Chinese workers commuting [between China and Iran] over January and February as well as with a number of students residing in Qom.”
The official said that at first the researchers said that the disease originated in Qom. “But now we also consider the probability that there have been two origins: Qom and Gilan.”
Stressing, however, that “our information about Gilan is not complete yet” he mentioned that there are indications that “a number of students inhabiting Wuhan had returned to the province of Gilan before Wuhan was quarantined.”
