Iran’s security forces will empty shops, streets and roads within 24 hours in part of endeavors to contain and prevent spread of coronavirus, top military commander announced.

"Over the next one week to 10 days, the entire Iranian nation will be monitored once through cyberspace, by phone and, if necessary, in person, and those suspected of the disease will be identified," said Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri on Friday.

"Our law enforcement and security committees along with the Interior Ministry and provincial governors will be clearing shops, streets and roads in a national decision. This work will be organized within the next 24 hours," he added.

He noted that the suspected cases would be then transferred to medical centers and said the Iranian Armed Forces would establish up to 1,000 treatment units to provide clinical examinations for coronavirus patients and would do their utmost to treat them.

The top commander called on the Iranian people to pay heed to all recommendations and requests by the Health Ministry to help defeat the virus as soon as possible, otherwise, he said, the containment would take more time.

In an edict to Major General Baqeri on Thursday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei emphasized the need for the establishment of a “health and treatment base” to prevent further spread of the ongoing epidemic in the country.

“While commending the services that the Armed Forces have so far provided to the dear people [of Iran], and while emphasizing the need for those services to further expand and continue, it is necessary that these services be organized in the form of a health and treatment base,” the Leader wrote in his edict.

“In addition to establishing such treatment facilities as field hospitals and infirmaries, and so forth, you must focus on prevention of further spread of this disease through necessary means as well,” Ayatollah Khamenei added.

Kianoush Jahanpour, the head of the public relations and information center of the Iranian Ministry of Health, said on Friday that the new coronavirus has claimed another 85 lives, bringing to 514 the overall number of deaths in Iran.

"Sadly, 85 people infected with the COVID-19 disease have died in the past 24 hours," Jahanpour said in a televised news conference.