Tehran, Nov 9 (IANS): Iran reported 459 deaths related to COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, making it the highest daily death toll since the outbreak of the virus in the country.

The new figure took the overall death toll of the epidemic in Iran to 38,291, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported.

She noted that 682,486 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed so far in Iran, after the registration of 9,236 infections in the past 24 hours.

According to the spokeswoman, 2,712 of these new patients have been hospitalized.

The Iranian health official said that 520,329 patients have recovered and been released from hospitals since the beginning of the outbreak, while 5,523 patients remain in critical condition.

The number of laboratory tests for COVID-19 carried out in Iran has reached 5,224,252 as of Sunday, she added.

She said 27 out of 31 Iranian provinces are in high risk condition.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on February 19.