Brazil reports 1,660 new COVID-19 deaths in one single day

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Brazil reported 1,660 new COVID-19 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll in the country to 313,866, the Health Ministry said on Monday.

The ministry also reported that there were 38,927 new infections in the same period of time, bringing the national caseload to 12,573,615.

Brazil is currently one of the global epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the world's second-worst outbreak in terms of both deaths and infections, only after the United States.

The South American country has been facing a new wave of COVID-19 outbreak since January, which has overwhelmed its health system in most of the country's 27 federative units.

Brazil has vaccinated 20.17 million people against COVID-19 as of Sunday, of which 15.47 million had received the first dose and 4.69 million had got both jabs, according to local media.