Brazil has had 12,301 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 293 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Thursday.

The South American country has now registered 21,989,962 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 612,144, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest.

As vaccination advances, the rolling 14-day average of COVID deaths has fallen to 258, compared to the toll of almost 3,000 a day at the peak of the pandemic in April.

Source: Emirates News Agency