TEHRAN, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Iran's confirmed novel coronavirus cases rose to 269,440 on Friday after an overnight registration of 2,379 new infections, according to official IRNA news agency.
During her daily briefing, Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said out of the new cases in the past 24 hours, 1,852 were hospitalized.
The pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 13,791 Iranians, up by 183 in the past 24 hours, she said.
So far, 232,873 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals and 3,509 remain in critical condition.
According to Lari, 2,098,985 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran as of Friday.
Iran's health official said that 10 provinces are still in high-risk condition.
She urged people to avoid unnecessary public appearance and refrain from ceremonial and family gatherings.
Lari on Friday asked people to observe sanitary instructions, social distancing and wearing masks in public.
Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19.
In mid-February, at the early stage of the coronavirus outbreak in China, Iran lit up the Tehran Azadi (Liberty) Tower to show its solidarity with China, and donated 3 million masks to China.
In return, China has delivered several shipments of medical supplies to Iran. On Feb. 29, a five-member Chinese medical team visited Iran for a month-long mission to help Iran fight the pandemic. Enditem
