SAO PAULO, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's COVID-19 death toll reached 188,259 after 968 more patients died from the novel coronavirus disease, the country's ministry of health reported on Tuesday.

Tests detected 55,202 new daily cases of infection, raising the accumulated caseload to 7,318,821, with 6,354,972 recoveries.

Brazil's southeast state of Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the country's COVID-19 outbreak, said Tuesday it will double down on lockdown measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus over the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Non-essential businesses will again be closed from Dec. 25 to 27 and Jan. 1 to 3, as part of a return to the red emergency phase of the pandemic, Sao Paulo Secretary of Economic Development Patricia Ellen said at a press conference.