The Iranian Health Ministry has confirmed 457 new coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total death tally to 40,121.

Health Ministry Spokesperson Sima Lari made the announcement on Thursday, adding the pandemic has infected 11,517 people in the course of the past 24 hours, putting the total cases at 726,585.

She noted that 3,149 of the new cases have been hospitalized.

According to Lari, 5,614 patients are in critical condition while 541,566 patients have recovered.

So far, over 5.38 million tests have been taken across the country to detect infected cases, she added.