Iran's coronavirus cases top 70k

Iran, on Saturday, reported 125 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising the overall toll in the Middle East's worst-hit country to 4,357, according to a health official.

A total of 1,837 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 70,029, said Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur.

According to him, 3,987 are in critical condition.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in late 2019 in China's Hubei province, and the virus has spread to 210 countries and territories since then.

To date, COVID-19 cases surpassed 1,700,000 globally, resulting in more than 380,000 recoveries and over 100,000 deaths.

On February 11, the WHO officially named the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as COVID-19, and on March 11, declared it a pandemic.