Tehran, Oct 31 (IANS): Iran's Health Ministry on Saturday reported 6,809 new Covid-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 5,916,211.

The pandemic also claimed 128 lives in the past 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 126,126, said the update by Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

A total of 5,494,689 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 3,942 remain in intensive care units, according to the Ministry.

By Saturday, 52,379,057 Iranians have received their first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, and 33,674,073 of them have taken two jabs, Xinhua news agency reported.

The report added that 35,403,860 tests have so far been carried out across the country.

Speaking on Saturday at a meeting of the country's National Task Force Against Coronavirus, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said the Health Ministry, along with the Ministries of Science and Education, should jointly plan to reopen schools and universities in December according to the guidelines.

"With the set of preventive and appropriate measures that have been taken through the relevant agencies... we hope to prevent the next wave and to protect the health of the people effectively," he added.