Tehran (Iran), February 25: Iranian health authorities said on Wednesday that 112 people infected with the mutant variant of coronavirus have been identified in the country, official IRNA news agency reported.
"So far, eight people in the country have died from the mutant virus," Alireza Raisi, spokesman for the Iranian national headquarters fighting COVID-19, told IRNA.
The symptoms of the new variant are the same as the common novel coronavirus, but its contagiousness and pathogenicity is higher, he said.
Raisi warned against the possibility of spread of the mutant variant in the country, urging people to follow the health protocols carefully.
Iran's health ministry reported 8,270 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,598,875.
The pandemic has so far claimed 59,736 lives in Iran, up by 73 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.
Of the newly infected, 746 were hospitalized, said Lari.
A total of 1,365,253 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 3,705 remain in intensive care units, she added.
According to the spokeswoman, 10,616,717 tests for the virus have been carried out in Iran by Wednesday.
Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19, 2020.
Source: Xinhua