TEHRAN: Iran said its novel coronavirus caseload surpassed one million on Thursday, as the authorities consider easing restrictions in many parts of the Middle East's hardest hit country. The Islamic republic had recorded 49,348 Covid-19 deaths and 1,003,494 infections since announcing its first cases in February, health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said.

In the past 24 hours, the virus caused 358 new deaths in the country with a population of more than 80 million, and 13,922 cases of infection, Lari said. The number of fatalities appears to have eased slightly in the past few days, however, after soaring to a daily average of more than 400 for much of November.