Brazil has 373 COVID deaths in 24 hours, lowest since April 2020 -ministry

Brazil has had 15,609 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 373 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Wednesday, reporting the lowest death toll for a Wednesday since April last year.

The South American country has now registered 21,680,488 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 604,228, 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 348, compared to the toll of almost 3,000 a day at the peak of the pandemic in April this year.