TEHRAN - Iran’s Health Ministry said Sunday that 15 additional people have died from the coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 569 contracted the infection amid a new spike in infections. A daily bulletin by the ministry’s public relations wing said the number of fatalities hit 144,956 while infections increased to 7,573,328. A total of 407 people infected by the virus are in critical condition and admitted to intensive care units in different hospitals across the country, it said. Four cities are currently in the high-risk “red” category on a color-coded COVID-19 map, 23 are in the moderate-risk “orange” category, 187 in the low-risk “yellow” category and 235 in the normal “blue” category. Iran was among the first countries in the Middle East to report the novel coronavirus in February 2020 after two deaths in the central city of Qom, followed by Tehran. The region’s worst-hit country grappled with at least seven waves of the virus, mostly fueled by highly-transmissible variants such as delta and omicron, before cases subsided. The situation was complicated by the slow pace of vaccination, which gained momentum after a new government took control in Tehran in late 2021. In June last year, after more than two years, Iran reported zero deaths from the virus. At the time, the number of fatalities stood at 141,318. Health Minister Bahram Einollah at the time cautioned that continued adherence to health protocols must continue until the disease is fully eliminated.