Tasnim � Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, in a phone conversation on Monday talked about a host of issues, including the latest efforts to control the coronavirus outbreak.

Zarif and Cavusoglu exchanged views about the outbreak of the infectious disease in the Islamic Republic.

The two top diplomats also discussed the deadly earthquake that hit an area near the common borders between Iran and Turkey on Sunday.

The magnitude 5.7 earthquake in northwestern Iran on Sunday killed nine people, including children, in neighboring Turkey and injured dozens on both sides of the border, authorities said.

Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki on Monday said the number of people who have died from the coronavirus in the country has risen to 12 and the total number of confirmed cases to 47, according to an MP.

In an interview with Tasnim, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament�s presiding board said the Health Minister has announced in a closed-door session of the parliament on Monday that the number of cases admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 infection has reached 47 and the death toll has risen to 12.

The minister has also noted that two coronavirus cases have been detected in capital Tehran, both of whom had traveled to the city of Qom, where the first cases of coronavirus were reported in Iran, Asadollah Abbasi said.

The lawmaker said families in the province of Qom are being given free packages including masks and detergents.

The Health Ministry says the source of contagion in Iran were the individuals returning to Iran from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and China, some of whom have crossed the border illegally, the MP added.

China had 150 new confirmed coronavirus deaths on Sunday, the National Health Commission announced on Monday, pushing the death toll nationwide to 2,592.

us outbreak.