RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Brazil registered 1,111 deaths from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the highest daily count fatalities since Oct. 3, when 1,307 people died, the Health Ministry said Tuesday.
The death toll from COVID-19 nationwide has thus amounted to 192,681.
Meanwhile, 58,718 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours, the highest daily tally since Dec. 17, bringing the nationwide caseload to 7,563,551.
The South American country has the third-largest COVID-19 outbreak in the world, after the United States and India, and the second-highest death toll.
The southeast Sao Paulo State, the most populated in the country, is the hardest hit region with 1,440,229 cases and 46,195 deaths, followed by neighboring Rio de Janeiro with 426,259 cases and 25,078 deaths.
Amid surging COVID-19 cases in Manaus, capital of northern Amazonas State and one of the epicenters of the outbreak, at least two local hospitals had set up tents outside their facilities to test new patients arriving with symptoms of COVID-19.
