Tehran, Mar 2 (IANS): Iranian health authorities issued a warning over a 'fourth wave' of the COVID-19 epidemic, after registering more than 100 deaths in 24 hours for the first time since early January, state TV reported.

"The death of 108 patients of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours is sounding the alarm of the fourth wave of the disease," Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said at her daily briefing on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The new daily figure takes the death toll of the epidemic to 60,181 in Iran.

Between Sunday and Monday, the ministry reported 8,510 new infections, Lari said, adding 812 of them need to be hospitalized.

The total number of Covid-19 cases registered in Iran stands at 1,639,679, according to the official data.

Moreover, 1,399,934 Covid-19 patients have recovered or been released from Iranian hospitals so far, though 3,727 remain in critical condition, said the spokeswoman.

Since the beginning of the outbreak in February 2020, a total of 10,912,409 laboratory tests for the coronavirus have been carried out in the country, the Iranian official said.

On Sunday evening, Alireza Raisi, spokesman for the Iranian national headquarters fighting COVID-19, said 187 cases of a coronavirus variant have been detected in Iran.