More than 600 Iranians have died from the consumption of high-concentrated alcohol believing it protects against the coronavirus.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a spokesperson for the Iranian judiciary, Ghulam Hussein Ismaili, as saying that the number of deaths due to drinking neat alcohol had reached a disturbing figure, adding that more than 3,000 people had been poisoned after drinking toxic beverages in an effort to treat the disease.

He pointed out that many alcoholic drinks that were produced illegally in Iran lack the required standards, adding that a number of people have been arrested as a result of this.

As of Tuesday afternoon, as many as 3,872 have died of the coronavirus in the Islamic Republic while the number of infections reached 63,589.