Thirty members of the Iranian parliament have tested positive for the Omicron variant of the coronavirus and are now in quarantine, lawmaker Abolfasl Abutorabi announced on Sunday.

The parliament now wants to conduct coronavirus tests on all 290 lawmakers to prevent further infections, Abutorabi said, according to the Fars news agency.

There has been an outcry in the country in recent months when it became known that a number of MPs failed to comply with coronavirus regulations.

Iran was particularly hard hit by the pandemic until the middle of last year, but the situation eased after an acceleration of the vaccination campaign.

To date, more than 60 per cent of Iran's nearly 84 million people have been vaccinated twice, with more than 16 million booster shots already administered.

However, in view of the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and the constantly rising case numbers, the Iranian government is planning a renewed lockdown.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020, more than 132,000 Covid-related deaths and more than 6.3 million infections have been recorded in the country.

Millions of Iranians are also suffering the financial consequences of the pandemic.

dpa