The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has been ravaging Iran and other countries with increasing morbidity and mortality. The pathogen spread rapidly and the outbreak caused nationwide anxiety and shock in Iran. To combat the COVID-19 epidemic, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME) of Iran introduced several policies and activities, including the use of tele-health services. This letter to the editor uses anecdotal and other records to provide a summary of the activities of MOHME during the COVID-19 outbreak in Iran from February 1 to March 31, 2020. In this commentary, we reviewed the MOHME information site and extended the recommendations offered by MOHME via presenting the existing challenges and a roadmap of the necessary policy requirements. The existing evidence demonstrates that tele-health should have been rapidly implemented as it presents an effective mode of service delivery to reduce morbidity and mortality and decrease the burden on healthcare providers and the health system during the COVID-19 outbreak. •Tele-health can unite several medical organizations into one virtual network, led by the central clinic.•The MOHME of Iran can use tele-health as one strategy to help accomplish social distancing and medical distancing.•MOHME could have implemented online health services during the spread of COVID-19, using tele-health.•Providing tele-health services in Iran has several challenges.•MOHME should address the challenges and create a suitable platform to take advantages of tele-health tools.