TEHRAN

Iran on Sunday confirmed 260 additional fatalities from the novel coronavirus, pushing the nationwide death toll to 15,700.

A further 2,333 people tested positive for COVID-19, raising the overall count to 291,172, Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

She said a total of 253,213 people have recovered so far, while 3,695 patients remain at hospitals in critical condition.

Last week, Iran's Health Ministry said in a report that about 30 to 35 million people in the country were likely to be affected by the deadly virus in the coming months.

The report said that an estimated 25 million people in Iran had already contracted the virus in the past five months, including around 14,000 deaths.

* Bassel Barakat contributed to this report from Ankara