Tehran has urged Iranians to avoid travelling to two key tourist areas as it announced a drop in daily coronavirus deaths after a record toll a day earlier.

With the start of the summer holidays, the health ministry “strongly advised everyone to avoid travelling to the provinces of Khorasan Razavi and Mazandaran”, two top tourist regions in the north of the country, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

She told state television that 142 people had died of the Covid-19 illness, down from 221 on Thursday — a single-day record for the Islamic republic.

A further 2,262 new infections were also recorded today, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 252,720, including 12,447 deaths.