Tehran [Iran], December 07 (ANI/Xinhua): Iran reported on Monday 10,827 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 1,051,374 in the country.

Of the newly infected, 1,691 were hospitalized, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman of Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said during her daily briefing.

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The pandemic has claimed 50,594 lives in Iran, after 284 new deaths were registered in the past 24 hours, according to Lari.

A total of 742,955 coronavirus patients have so far recovered or been released from hospitals, while 5,796 others are still in critical condition.

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The number of laboratory tests for Covid-19 carried out in Iran has reached 6,432,228, she noted.

Currently, the risk of infection is high in 64 Iranian counties flagged with a red alert, while 278 counties remain in orange alert, and 106 others are at yellow level.

Iran announced its first cases of Covid-19 on Feb. 19.

Restrictions implemented since the third week of November seem to have contained a steep surge of the pandemic in the country, after daily deaths approached the 500 threshold.

On Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Passport and Visa Department started issuing a new electronic visa for business purposes, after tourism and pilgrimage visas were deactivated on Aug. 4 because of the pandemic, official news agency IRNA reported. (ANI/Xinhua)

(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)