Iran has reported an additional 49 deaths from the new coronavirus, the largest daily increase since the country reported its first related fatality on February 19.

The Iranian health ministry said on Sunday that the latest increase, which is more than double the number reported the previous day, raised the death toll to 194.

Iran has the third-largest number of confirmed fatalities from the virus, following China and Italy.

Health authorities said seven-hundred-43 more people also tested positive for the virus, with the total number of cases standing at six-thousand-566.

The South Korean government, meanwhile, is looking to send a charter plane within the week to evacuate South Korean nationals from Iran.

An official from the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said the embassy in Tehran is in the process of confirming how many of the more than 200 South Koreans in the Middle Eastern nation wish to be repatriated.