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Author: Vijeta Uniyal

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Vijeta Uniyal

Vijeta Uniyal is an Indian journalist based in Germany. He is Senior Distinguished Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Lifting a blanket export ban, India has shipped a huge consignment of coronavirus treatment drugs to Israel. New Delhi delivered a five-tonne cargo of medicines including chloroquine, the antiviral drug currently being used in the treatment of Wuhan coronavirus.

U.S. President Donald Trump plans to block Iran's bid for a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), news reports say. The international funding organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., is currently considering an Iranian request for "emergency funding," citing the outbreak of Wuhan Coronavirus in the country.

Having reported news for almost six years, I seldom become a subject of it myself. Yesterday was one such rare exception as I was repatriated from South Africa to Germany.

With the worsening of the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak in Iran, prisons across the country are witnessing rioting and mass breakouts, Iranian state-run media confirmed. As the official Iranian death toll nears 3,000 and confirmed cases of the virus reach close to 45,000, Iran has become an epicenter of the virus which that first appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The actual extent of the outbreak could be much higher, as suggested by the mass graves dug by the regime and elaborate misinformation campaign.

The founding member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Habib Barzegari, has died of the Wuhan coronavirus, Saudi TV network Al Arabiya reported Tuesday citing Iranian state media. Barzegari was also among the advisers to the Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, news reports say. With this latest high-profile death, the outbreak has claimed several senior members of the Iranian regime, including several IRGC commanders, Khamenei's top aides, and senior regime officials.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday slammed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei for spreading the conspiracy theory that blamed the U.S. for the Coronavirus outbreak. "Khamenei's fabrications that the US is responsible for the Wuhan Virus [COVID-19] put Iranians, Americans, and the rest of the world at risk. Facts matter," Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced nationwide lockdown measures late Friday as British health authorities registered a spike in Wuhan Coronavirus deaths. UK's National Health Service (NHS) reported 40 Coronavirus related deaths on Friday, the biggest single day jump yet, taking the overall death toll to 177.

The United States has sanctioned several Chinese companies involved in shipping Iranian oil and financing terrorism, the State Department announced on Wednesday. The measures taken against seven interlinked companies include three mainland China-based firms, three Hong Kong-based, and one from South Africa.

Iran is "scaling back" on terrorist activities in the Middle East due to coronavirus outbreak, the Israel Defense Forces indicated on Monday. "There are countries who have gotten it way worse than us with this corona[virus] story, and as a result their activities are at a slower pace," IDF Spokesman Hidai Zilberman told reporters without naming Iran.

With Europe now officially the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic, Germany has announced its decision to close its borders with France, Austria, and Switzerland starting Monday, German news agency dpa reports. The German borders will remain closed barring some exceptions. Daily commuters and movement of goods have been exempted from the closure.