COVID-19 cases in Brazil pass 1 million

RIO DE JANEIRO: The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Brazil has reached 1,032,913 on Friday after the country registered a new record number of 54,771 cases within the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said.

The tally is only second to that of the United States whose caseload is more than 2.2 million.

The death toll from the pandemic in Brazil has increased by 1,206 to 48,954 people within the same period of time, the ministry said.

The state of Sao Paulo continues to be the epicenter of the virus outbreak in the country, with 211,658 confirmed cases and 12,232 deaths, followed by the state of Rio de Janeiro with 93,378 cases and 8,595 deaths, and the state of Ceara with 89,863 cases and 5,460 deaths.

Despite the rising number of cases, the regional government of Sao Paulo authorized the opening of training sessions for professional sports clubs.

The health ministry said that to date, 507,200 patients have recovered from the disease.