Coronavirus fatalities continue to rise in Brazil

By Muhammed Emin Canik

BUENOS AIRES (AA) - Brazil reported 632 more fatalities from the novel coronavirus over the past day, according to statistics from the Health Ministry released on Tuesday.

The total count of coronavirus-related deaths rose to 80,120 in the country.

A total of 20,257 more infections were confirmed across the Latin American country in the last 24 hours, pushing the overall tally to over 2.1 million.

The number of recoveries has surpassed 1.4 million.

Brazil, the world's second worst-hit country by the pandemic, is considered to be epicenter of the outbreak in Latin America.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who recently contracted COVID-19, is accused of underestimating the threat of the virus.

Across the world, COVID-19 has claimed nearly 610,000 lives in 188 countries and regions since emerging in China last December.

Nearly 14.7 million cases have been reported worldwide, with the US, Brazil, India, and Russia currently being the worst-hit countries, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.

The data shows more than half of all people infected with the virus worldwide -- nearly 8.3 million -- have recovered so far.