Iranian health authorities reported over 100 new deaths from the COVID-19 disease Sunday for the third day running, stressing that the outbreak had not yet peaked in the country that has been hit hard by the pandemic.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said the 116 deaths reported Sunday had brought the country's overall coronavirus toll to 9,623.
She added that 2,368 new infections had been confirmed, bringing to 204,952 the total number of cases in Iran.
Health Minister Said Namaki, however, denied that Iran was facing a second wave of the outbreak, saying "the peak of the disease has not passed."
"Even in provinces where we think the first coronavirus wave is behind us, we have not yet fully experienced the first wave," he added.
Iran reported its first cases on February 19 and has since struggled to contain the outbreak, the deadliest in the region.
Iran recorded its lowest single-day death toll in early May, before seeing a new spike in infections in recent weeks.
The authorities have not imposed a mandatory lockdown on the population but closed schools, cancelled public events and banned movement between the country's 31 provinces in March, before gradually easing restrictions starting in April.
According to Lari, four provinces -- Khuzestan, Hormozgan, Kermanshah and East Azerbaijan -- were currently "red", the highest level on the country's color-coded risk scale.
