Iran reports 135 new virus deaths, raising total to 988
![Credit: CC0 Public Domain virus](https://scx1.b-cdn.net/csz/news/800a/2019/virus.jpg)
Iran announced on Tuesday another 135 deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the overall toll to 988 in one of the world's worst-hit countries.
"Reports by more than 56 laboratories indicated that we have had 1,178 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the past 24 hours," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference.
"This brings the total number of confirmed cases to 16,169 as of today noon," he added.
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