Iran reports 483 more virus deaths, over 13,700 cases

TEHRAN

Iran registered 483 more coronavirus-related fatalities on Tuesday, raising the nationwide death toll to 25,738, according to the country's Health Ministry.

A total of 13,721 more people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, pushing the overall count up to 880,542, according to spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari.

She also said that 617,715 patients have recovered so far, while 5,824 are in critical condition.

All of Iran’s 31 provinces are currently designated red zones with high risk of virus transmission, she warned.

Iran's Deputy Health Minister Reza Malekzadeh resigned Friday amid a spike in the number of novel coronavirus cases in the country, according to local media.

Malekzadeh accused Health Minister Saeed Namaki of mismanaging the pandemic and causing many casualties, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

Iran has been struggling to contain the pandemic since February, when the first cases were confirmed in the city of Qom.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz in Ankara