Iran's health ministry said that 71 new fatalities from the novel coronavirus took the country's overall death toll past the 6,000 mark, according to AFP.

“The number of deaths from this disease effectively crossed 6,000 today,” ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in televised remarks.

“Considering that we lost 71 of our countrymen in the past 24 hours, a total of 6,028 of those infected with Covid-19 have passed away to date,” he added.