Tehran, May 5 (IANS): Iran on Tuesday reported 20,150 new Covid-19 cases, taking the country's total infections to 2,575,737.

The pandemic has so far claimed 73,219 lives in Iran, up by 344 in the past 24 hours, the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education said in a written briefing.

A total of 2,022,586 people have recovered from the disease or been discharged from hospitals across the country, while 5,477 remain in intensive care units, the ministry said.

It added that 16,379,357 tests have so far been carried out across the country.

As of Tuesday, 1,083,138 people have received the first dose of coronavirus vaccines and 231,503 people the second jab, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier in the day, the official IRNA news agency published the latest map of zones on alert over the spread of the virus, noting the number of countries on red alert has now decreased to 102.

So far, half of the population aged over 80 has been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Iran, Kianush Jahanpur, head of the Public Relations and Information Center, was quoted by Iranian state TV as saying on Tuesday morning.

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.