TEHRAN --T he COVID-19 epidemic has claimed 50,016 lives in Iran as of Saturday, with the total cases to 1,028,986 in the country, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

The ministry's spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari reported at daily briefing that 12,151 new COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours with 321 new fatalities. Of the newly infected, 1,562 had to be hospitalized.

As of Saturday, 719,708 COVID-19 patients have recovered or been released from Iranian hospitals, but 5,817 others are currently in critical condition, she added.

Iran's President Hasan Rouhani reported on the same day a significant decrease in COVID-19 infection levels across the country, after restrictions announced two weeks ago.

"Compared to the 160 red zones we had two weeks ago, we have now reduced them to 64 red zones with the efforts and observance from the people," Rouhani said in an online meeting of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus.

However, he warned that 7 counties are in the state of ultrared where the infection rate is rising, according to reports.

The president also noted the decrease in the daily death toll in the country, from nearly 500 lives lost every day at the end of November to around 350 in the last few days.

"Very good work has been done during this period of restrictions, which have had positive effects, and all of this has been obtained thanks to the cooperation of the people," he said.

Rouhani stressed that wherever the situation turn back to red alert conditions, restrictions will be reinforced.

Iran imposed restrictions on Nov. 21 as part of the government's measures to contain a new surge of the coronavirus epidemic and the restrictions were extended on Friday for two more weeks in the red high-risk areas.