Tehran, Dec 7 (IANS): Iran's Health Ministry reported 11,561 new Covid-19 cases, raising the total nationwide infections to 1,040,547.

The pandemic has so far claimed 50,310 lives in Iran, up by 294 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education during her daily briefing, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday.

A total of 730,798 people have recovered from the disease and been discharged from hospitals, while 5,809 remain in intensive care units, Lari added.

According to the spokeswoman, 6,387,019 tests for the virus have been carried out in Iran as of Sunday.

Following the implementation of restrictions since two weeks ago, the authorities have been able to control the new spread and tallies of the disease, Lari noted.

According to the country's novel coronavirus taskforce, major restrictions, including the intercity travels and movements of the cars during night hours, will remain in force until the next notice.

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