TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (Xinhua) -- Iran's confirmed total COVID-19 cases rose to 317,483 on Wednesday after an overnight registration of 2,697 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, 1,331 were hospitalized.
The novel coronavirus pandemic has so far claimed the lives of 17,802 in Iran, up by 185 in the past 24 hours, she said.
So far, 274,932 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals and 4,129 remain in critical condition.
According to Lari, 2,587,083 lab tests for COVID-19 have been carried out in Iran as of Wednesday.
About 14 provinces are still in high-risk condition, while 12 other provinces are in alert situation, Iran's health official said.
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 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
