Brazil reports 36,315 daily COVID cases and 979 deaths in past 24 hours

Brazil has had 36,315 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 979 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Thursday.

The South American country has now registered 20,494,212 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 572,641, according to ministry data, in the world's third-worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest after the United States.

As vaccination advances, the rolling 7-day average of COVID deaths has fallen to less that one third of the toll of almost 3,000 a day at the peak of the pandemic in April.