President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday accused the United States of trying to spread “fear” in Iran over a deadly outbreak of the novel coronavirus. Coronavirus has claimed the lives of 19 people among 139 infections in Iran making it the deadliest outbreak outside China. “We shouldn’t let America mount a new virus on top of coronavirus that is called... Extreme fear,” Rouhani told a weekly cabinet meeting, a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of suppressing information about the outbreak. The Americans “themselves are struggling with coronavirus. Sixteen thousand people have died of influenza there but they don’t talk about their own (dead),” Rouhani said. Iran has been scrambling to contain COVID-19 since Wednesday last week when it announced the first two deaths in Qom, a centre for Islamic studies and pilgrims that attracts scholars from abroad.