Iran's virus death toll reaches almost 12,000

The Iranian government announced Tuesday that 200 more people had died from the coronavirus in the country's highest single-day spike in deaths.

The new figures released bring the country's overall death toll to 11,931.

Speaking in Tehran, Sima Sadat Lari, spokesperson for the Iranian heath ministry, said the total number of detected cases of the virus in the country was 245,688.

The government on Sunday instituted mandatory mask-wearing as fears mounted over newly surging deaths even as its public increasingly shrugs off the danger of the virus.