Brazil reports 389 new COVID deaths, lowest Monday toll since December

A health worker treats a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the Ronaldo Gazolla Hospital, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 18, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO

BRASILIA — Brazil had 15,143 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours and 389 deaths from COVID-19, the lowest death toll for a Monday since early December, according to Health Ministry data.

The South American country has now registered 19,953,501 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 557,223, 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 7-day average of COVID deaths has fallen to one third of the toll of almost 3,000 per day at the peak of the pandemic in April, according to a Reuters tally.