Brazil registered a record number of new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, with 20,803 cases reported, and exceeded 1,000 deaths in one day for the third time, the government said on Friday.
According to the Ministry of Health, the total number of confirmed cases rose to 330,890, while deaths in the country rose to 21,048 with a daily increase of 1,001, which put the fatality rate at 6.4 per cent.
On Thursday, Brazil established another record by registering 1,188 deaths in one day.
With the new daily increase, Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, overtook Russia Friday to become the country with the second largest number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, just behind the United States.
According to the government, 135,430 people have recovered from the disease so far.
The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, has been the most heavily affected by the virus, with 5,773 deaths and 76,871 confirmed cases, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 3,657 deaths and 33,589 cases, and Ceara, with 2,251 deaths and 34,573 cases.