TEHRAN, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Iran reported on Monday 10,827 new COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 1,051,374 in the country.

Pedestrians, mask-clad due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, walk past closed shops along a street in Iran's capital Tehran on November 21, 2020, as the Iranian government announced new pandemic-countering measures. (File photo: AFP)

Of the newly infected, 1,691 were hospitalized, Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman of Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said during her daily briefing.

The pandemic has claimed 50,594 lives in Iran, after 284 new deaths were registered in the past 24 hours, according to Lari.

A total of 742,955 COVID-19 patients have so far recovered or been released from hospitals, while 5,796 others are still in critical condition.

The number of laboratory tests for COVID-19 carried out in Iran has reached 6,432,228, she noted.

Currently, the risk of infection is high in 64 Iranian counties flagged with a red alert, while 278 counties remain in orange alert, and 106 others are at yellow level.

Iran announced its first cases of COVID-19 on Feb. 19.

Restrictions implemented since the third week of November seem to have contained a steep surge of the pandemic in the country, after daily deaths approached the 500 threshold.

On Sunday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry's Passport and Visa Department started issuing a new electronic visa for business purposes, after tourism and pilgrimage visas were deactivated on Aug. 4 because of the pandemic, official news agency IRNA reported.