Iran has temporarily released more than 54,000 prisoners in an attempt to combat the spread of new coronavirus infection in crowded prisons, the BBC reported.Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told reporters that the inmates were granted furlough after testing negative for Covid-19 and posting bail.

"Security prisoners" sentenced to more than five years will not be let out.Hopes were raised that those temporarily freed would include jailed British-Iranian charity worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe after a British MP cited Iran's Ambassador to the United Kingdom saying she may be released on furlough today or tomorrow.
But the ambassador, Hamid Baeidinejad, later clarified that Iran's government had said an unnamed "security prisoner" would be released but the reference to Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was "an interpretation".

The outbreak has now claimed 77 lives in Iran and infected more than 2,300 people across the country in multiple cities.Watching the spread of infection,WHO said on Tuesday that supplies of protective gear worldwide were rapidly depleting, threatening the overall response to the outbreak, which has killed more than 3,100 people, mostly in China.