TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iran announced on Sunday an overnight registration of 3,653 new COVID-19 infections, taking the overall number of cases of novel coronavirus in the country to 471,772.
Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing that 1,483 new patients had to be hospitalized in the past 24 hours, official news agency IRNA reported.
From Saturday to Sunday, 211 deaths of people infected with the novel coronavirus were registered, she added, which takes the death toll of the pandemic in Iran to 26,957.
As of Sunday, 389,966 patients have recovered from COVID-19 and been released from hospitals, but currently 4,154 people remain on critical condition in intensive care units, according to Lari.
The number of laboratory tests for COVID-19 carried out in Iran has now reached 4,123,173, the spokeswoman noted.
The risk of infection is high in 26 out of 31 Iranian provinces, while four others are on alert over the spread of the disease.
Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19.
Iran and China have offered mutual help in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.
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 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
