TEHRAN, April 1. /TASS/. Fatalities from the coronavirus in Iran have risen by 138 over past day, surpassing 3,000, Iran's health ministry spokesman, Kianoush Jahanpour, said on Wednesday.

"Since yesterday 2,987 new coronavirus cases have been recorded in the country. The total number of those infected is 47,593," the official was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying. "Over the past 24 hours, 138 people have died from the coronavirus, and the total number of fatalities has reached 3,038."

As of now, 15,473 people have recovered in Iran.

In March, the number of coronavirus cases in Iran mostly remained at the level of between 1,000 and 1,200 per day. However, on March 23 the figure began to surge and surpassed 3,000 cases per day within five days. Over the past six says, the number of new coronavirus cases ranges between 2,900 and 3,200 per day.

The first coronavirus cases in Iran were confirmed on February 19 in Qom Province. All schools in the country were shut down, while many countries restricted communication with the Islamic Republic. Iranian authorities temporarily released 100,000 inmates from prisons and banned transportation between the cities.

In late December 2019, Chinese authorities notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. To date, more than 850,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 42,000 deaths have been reported.

So far, a total of 2,777 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, with 190 patients having recovered from the illness. The country’s latest data indicates 24 fatalities nationwide. Earlier, the Russian government set up an Internet hotline to keep the public informed about the coronavirus situation.