The Iranian health ministry announced on Saturday that 608 new cases of coronavirus infection have been identified across the country during the past 24 hours, adding that 22 patients have passed away in the same period of time.
"A sum of 608 new patients infected with COVID-19 have been identified in the country based on confirmed diagnosis criteria during the past 24 hours," the Iranian Health Ministry's Public Relations Center said on Saturday, and added, "140 patients have been hospitalized during the same time span."
It further said that the total number of COVID-19 patients has increased to 7,215,512.
"Unfortunately, 22 patients have lost their lives in the past 24 hours, increasing the number of the dead to 140,962," the ministry noted.
It expressed satisfaction that 6,963,991 coronavirus patients have recovered or been discharged from hospitals so far.
The center went on to say that 1,087 cases infected with COVID-19 are in critical conditions.
It added that 50,759,838 coronavirus diagnosis tests have so far been carried out across the country.
The health ministry public relations warned that 2 cities are rated red, 48 cities are orange, 323 cities are yellow, and 75 cities are blue.
Coronavirus figures and deaths have been on a downward trend since the government started a mass vaccination campaign.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi said in August that the country will import millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine, stressing the necessity for providing millions more jabs to give immunity to the society.