Nearly one in five Iranians may have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the country's outbreak started in February, a health official said, according to AFP.

“About 15 million Iranians may have experienced being infected with this virus since the outbreak began,” said Ehsan Mostafavi, a member of the task force set up to combat Covid-19.

This meant the virus was “much less lethal than we or the world had anticipated”, the ISNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Mostafavi said it was derived from serology tests to identify antibodies in patients who have recovered from the illness.