TEHRAN: Iranian health officials sought on Sunday to play down the president's estimate that some 25 million people have been infected with the coronavirus, saying it was based on serological blood tests that measure exposure to the illness and that cannot be relied on to show the current state of disease.

A Health Ministry statement carried by Iranian news media said the figure given by the president was based on numbers produced by a deputy in the ministry. "It is not possible to rely on serological tests to diagnose the current state of the disease," the statement said.