Medical personnel take a rest during the combat against COVID-19 in Tehran, Iran, March 28, 2020. With the 2,901 new confirmed cases over the past 24 hours, the total number of infected people with the novel coronavirus in Iran reached 38,309 on Sunday, reported official IRNA news agency.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
More than 62,000 nurses have contracted COVID-19 in Iran and about 100 of them have lost their lives due to the disease, an Iranian official was quoted by official news agency IRNA as saying on Saturday.

"The sacrifices made by nurses in the past year have alleviated some of the problems of the people during the epidemic, and we should appreciate their efforts," Deputy Health Minister Mariam Hazrati said in a public tribute in Tehran to nurses died from COVID-19.

Reports on the coronavirus-caused deaths of around 100 nurses are being analyzed under the supervision of the Ministry and the Foundation of Martyrs, and some of the deceased have already been approved to be recognized as "martyrs of service."

At her daily briefing on Saturday, spokeswoman for Iranian Ministry of Health Sima Sadat Lari said 81 new deaths related to the coronavirus were registered in Iran in the past 24 hours.

And 7,975 new cases of COVID-19 were detected between Friday and Saturday, of which 418 patients had to be hospitalized, according to the spokeswoman.

The new figures make for a death toll of 59,980, and an overall count of 1,623,159 infections since the beginning of the crisis.

Sadat Lari said 1,386,534 patients have recovered, but 3,729 severe cases are currently being treated in intensive care units.

Eleven Iranian counties in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, bordering Iraq, remain on red alert over a high risk of infection, the spokeswoman noted, and the authorities have asked the people in the province to stay at home as much as possible