TEHRAN - Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Friday that Tehran and Rome are consulting to evacuate the Iranian students in Italy.

“We are consulting to have one flight from Rome and two from Milan to Tehran,” Mousavi explained.

He said that the Iranian students in Italy have been informed about healthcare protocols before, during and after their trip.

Iran’s embassy in Rome issued a statement on Thursday announcing Friday’s flight to Iran was cancelled due to a number of passengers’ failure to observe the healthcare protocols on Wednesday’s flight.

Reportedly, so far, 168,941 Italians have been infected by the coronavirus, including 22,170 deaths.

On Friday (April 17), the Iranian Health Ministry also announced that 1,499 new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed over the past 24 hours, a notable decrease compared with 1,606 in the same period the day before.

Over the past 24 hours, 89 new patients have also lost their lives compared with 92 a day earlier, ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said.

The total number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus in Iran has reached 79,494, of whom 4,958 have died and 54,064 have recovered.

NA/PA