Brazil's COVID-19 cases top 4.3 mln amid heat wave, packed beaches

Brazil on Sunday said 415 deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past 24 hours pushed the total death toll to 131,625.

According to the Ministry of Health, in the same period, tests detected 14,768 new cases of infection, taking the total caseload since the onset of Brazil's outbreak in Sao Paulo on Feb. 26 to 4,330,455.

The number of new cases is approximately half last week's daily average of cases, but officials pointed out weekend reports tend to be lower due to administrative difficulties on Saturdays and Sundays.

Meanwhile, a heat wave affecting southeast Brazil, the epicenter of the national outbreak, saw residents in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro throng the beaches for the second weekend in a row.

Sao Paulo is the state with the most COVID-19 deaths and cases, 32,606 and 892,257, respectively. Rio de Janeiro has the second-highest death toll, 16,990.

Brazil has the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, and the world's third-largest case count.


TV BRICS reports with reference to Xinhua News Agency

Photo: Xinhua News Agency