Tehran, Dec 23 (IANS): Iran reported four new cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, taking its overall tally of the new strain to eight.

On Wednesday, it reported 2,103 new Covid cases, taking the country's total infections to 6,177,885. The pandemic has claimed 44 lives, taking the death toll to 131,211, an update by Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education said.

A total of 6,016,324 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 2,821 remained in intensive care units, Xinhua news agency reported citing the ministry's update.

As many as 59,313,976 Iranians have received their first jab, and 50,744,197 received their second, till Wednesday. Meanwhile, 4,593,787 people in the country have received their booster doses.

The report added that 41,082,066 tests have, so far, been carried out across the country.

on Sunday, Iran said it detected the first case of the Omicron variant in a traveller who returned from the UAE.