Tehran, Dec 20 (IANS): Iran has reported its first case of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, a top health official announced here.

An Iranian national was tested positive with the disease after returning to the country, Xinhua news agency quoted Mohammad Mehdi Gooya, the head of management centre of infectious diseases of the Health Ministry, as saying on Sunday.

"Currently, only one case of this strain has been identified in Iran and two cases are suspected of this disease. The situation of these (two) people are being studied and the results will be made public as soon as the final test results are announced," he added.

On Sunday, the Ministry reported 1,968 new Covid cases, taking the country's total infections to 6,170,979.

The pandemic also claimed 50 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 131,083.

A total of 6,004,277 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 2,876 remain in intensive care units, according to the Ministry.

By Sunday, 59,126,764 Iranians have received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 50,340,978 were fully inoculated.

Meanwhile, 3,772,199 people in the country have received the third dose or the booster shot.