Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi expressed gratitude to foreign countries helping the Islamic Republic to combat new coronavirus.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi expressed gratitude to foreign countries helping the Islamic Republic to combat new coronavirus and said the people and government of Iran will never forget friendly nations that sided with them in hard times.

Following tweets and phone calls of Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif as well as efforts by the Iranian embassies in foreign countries, medical supplies and financial assistance have been received from China, Turkey, the UAE, Germany, France, the UK, Japan, Qatar, Azerbaijan and Russia, Mousavi said on his Twitter account on Saturday.

"The Iranian government and people will never forget their friends in hard times," the spokesman added.

Iran has been battling the coronavirus outbreak for more than three weeks.

Spokesman for the Iranian Health Ministry said on Friday that since the outbreak of the coronavirus in the country, 3,529 patients have completely recovered from the infectious disease.

Kianoush Jahanpour said that since Friday, the total number of coronavirus cases in the country has increased by 1,365, reaching 12,729.

Over the past 24 hours, 97 patients have lost their lives, the spokesman said, adding that the death toll from the new coronavirus epidemic in the country has risen to 611.

Fortunately, so far 4,339 patients infected with the COVID-19 have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals, he said.

First detected in Wuhan city in central China in December, the virus has spread to more than 120 countries.

More than 140,000 have been infected globally, according to the WHO. Of those, over 68,000 have recovered.