UPDATE, 1200 GMT:

The Health Ministry has reported 1,234 new cases of Coronavirus, bringing the total to 4,747.

The death toll has risen to 124, with 913 people declared to have recovered.

Officials are now telling Iranians not to travel through Iranian New Year, which begins on March 20.

UPDATE, 0845 GMT:

Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, is also declaring a “bioterrorist act on Iran and China” through Coronavirus.

He added that, if US sanctions were not in place, Iran could more easily deal with the spread of the virus.

The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has declared that Coronavirus may be Western “biological warfare” against the Islamic Republic.

Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami (pictured) told an audience in Kerman in central Iran on Thursday, “We will win the battle against this virus which might be the result of a biological offensive that has first reached China and Iran and other regions.”

Salami spoke as the Health Ministry announced a surge in the official toll to to 107 deaths and 3,513 cases, a sharp increase from the 2,322 cases reported on Wednesday.

Among the latest deaths was that of Hossein Sheikholeslam, former Iran Ambassador to Syria and advisor to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Iran’s former Ambassador to the Vatican died last week, and a member of the Expediency Council, which advises the Supreme Leader, passed away on Monday. Among those testing positive are 23 MPs, Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar, Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, and the brother of the Supreme Leader’s daughter-in-law. Unconfirmed reports say 1st Vice President Esh’aq Jahangiri is also ill.

On January 23 — as the official death toll stood at 8, among 43 cases — the Supreme Leader insisted that Coronavirus was a “Western plot” trying to depress turnout at Iran’s Parliamentary elections two days earlier. President Rouhani echoed the talk of “conspiracy” for four days, as the Government held out against quarantines.

With authorities unable to hide the spread of the virus, Ayatollah Khamenei shifted the line on Tuesday: “Whatever facilitates [the virus’s] spread is a sin.” Iranian authorities are setting up checkpoints to monitor and limit travel between major cities, and Friday Prayers and football matches have been cancelled or postponed.

But Salami renewed the conspiracy message as he said, “Today, we are involved in a biological battle and the country will pave this difficult path with stability, consolidation and consistency.”

He said the “plot will backfire on those that have engineered it”.