At least 27 people have died from methanol poisoning in Iran after rumours that drinking alcohol can help cure the novel coronavirus infection, state news agency IRNA reported.

According to AFP, a spokesman for Jundishapur Medical University in Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan, said 218 people had been hospitalised after being poisoned.

The poisonings were caused by “rumours that drinking alcohol can be effective in treating coronavirus,” Ali Ehsanpour said.

The deputy prosecutor of Alborz, Mohammad Aghayari, told IRNA the dead had drank methanol after being “misled by content online, thinking they were fighting coronavirus and curing it.”

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