Tehran, Apr 27 (IANS): The Iranian health ministry reported on Monday 496 more Covid-19 deaths, the highest figure registered in Iran since the beginning of the pandemic, which has already claimed 70,070 lives in the country.

According to the daily briefing of Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, 21,026 new Covid-19 cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the country's total infections to 2,417,230, Xinhua news agency reported.

A total of 1,892,229 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 5,244 remain in intensive care units, it said.

As of Monday, 652,903 people have received the first dose of coronavirus vaccines and 171,210 got the second jab.

Also on Monday, Deputy Health Minister Qasem Janbabaei noted on the sidelines of a public event in capital Tehran that the increase in the number of daily infections observed in previous weeks has now stopped, and the situation is "stable," official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran has recently implemented restrictions on businesses and travels in high-risk areas amid a new wave of the virus spread in the country.

Iran reported its first cases of the disease in February 2020.