Iran's death toll from the novel coronavirus has passed 11,000, the health ministry said, as the country struggles to contain the Middle East's deadliest outbreak of Covid-19.

According to AFP, official figures have shown a rising trajectory in fatalities and new confirmed cases in recent months, after Iran reported a near-two month low in daily recorded infections in early May.

“Unfortunately, the number of hospitalisations is increasing in most of the country's provinces,” health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said on state TV.