COVID-19 deaths continue to rise in Mexico, Brazil

By Zehra Ulucak

ANKARA (AA) - Mexico and Brazil on Sunday reported additional novel coronavirus-related fatalities.

Mexico reported 387 more deaths from COVID-19, bringing the total in the country to 20,781.

A total 4,717 more people tested positive for the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the overall count to 175,202, said the Health Ministry.

Recoveries have reached 131,686, it added.

Mexico confirmed its first COVID-19 case on Feb. 28 and first death due to the disease on March 19.

- Brazil

Brazil reached 1,067,589 virus cases, with 54,771 new infections recorded in the last 24 hours. In one day, the South American country reported 1,022 deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 49,976.

Sao Paulo, the commercial center of the country with a 46 million population, has confirmed a total of 215,793 cases and 12,494 deaths.

Rio de Janeiro, another severely virus-hit area, registered more than 95,500 cases and 8,824 deaths.

Since originating in China last December, the pandemic has claimed almost 464,500 lives in 188 countries and regions. The US, Brazil, and Russia are currently the world’s worst-hit countries.

Nearly 8.8 million cases have been reported worldwide, while over 4.3 million patients have recovered so far, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

*Writing by Gozde Bayar