COVID-19 cases continue to grow in Iran

According to the official IRNA news agency, Iran reported 2,456 new cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total confirmed novel coronavirus cases to 220,180 on Saturday.

Sima Sadat Lari, the spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said during her daily update on Saturday that out of the new cases overnight, 1,139 have been hospitalized.

Since Friday, 125 people died from the viral disease, taking the total fatalities over the virus to 10,364.

So far, 180,661 have recovered, and 2,928 remain in critical condition, said Lari.

According to the health spokeswoman, 1,583,542 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran as of Saturday.

The Iranian health official said that five provinces are still in high-risk conditions.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on February 19.