Brazil's COVID-19 death toll tops 295,000

Rio De Janerio (Brazil), March 23: Brazil on Monday said 1,383 more people died from the novel coronavirus disease in the previous 24 hours, raising the national death toll to 295,425.
According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 49,293 new cases, bringing the nationwide count to 12,047,526.
Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the virus worldwide in terms of both deaths and cases, second only to the United States.
Currently, the South American country sees an average of 141 deaths and 5,733 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Since January, Brazil has experienced a new wave of infections, forcing several states and cities to step up social distancing measures.
As of Sunday, Brazil had vaccinated about 16 million people with 11.8 million, or 5.58 percent of the population, receiving the first dose and 4.1 million, or 1.96 percent, getting the second jab.
Source: Xinhua