Tehran, Apr 3 (IANS): Iranian Minister of Health and Medical Education Saeed Namaki warned of "tough days ahead" for the country because of the Covid-19 pandemic, after 117 people died in last 24 hours.

"We have said that, if people do not listen to our expert advice, we would have a tough spring ahead," Xinhua news agency quoted Namaki as saying in a social media post on Friday.

The Minister stressed the necessity to look after the country's medical staff, "tired after 14 months of relentless and dedicated work to control continuous peaks" of the disease.

He recognised the importance of the tourism economy for Iran, warning of the economic costs of managing a new surge of the pandemic.

Namaki also said that the country is running out of available hospital beds.

The new 117 deaths was the highest single-day spike since the beginning of this year.

The figure raised the death toll to 62,876, while the caseload has increased to 1,908,974.

Iran announced its first cases of Covid-19 on February 19, 2020.