Iran’s health ministry raised Sunday the death toll from the new virus to 8 people in the country, amid concerns that clusters there, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread. There were now 43 confirmed cases of the illness in Iran, Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour told state TV. The outbreak in Iran has centered mostly on the city of Qom, but spread rapidly over the past few days to people in four cities, including the capital, Tehran, where schools were shut for two days starting on Sunday.
