RIO DE JANEIRO, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Brazil registered 49,768 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours, bringing its total number of confirmed infections to 16,391,930, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
In the same period, 2,371 more people died from the disease, raising the pandemic death toll to 459,045.
The South American country is seeing a second wave of infections in 2021, leading to a collapse of the healthcare system in many parts as most states are unable to cope with the number of COVID-19 patients.
Brazil currently has a rate of 7,800 infections and 218 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, with an average of 60,140 cases and 1,819 deaths a day over the last seven days, according to the National Council of Health Secretariats.
As of Thursday, Brazil had vaccinated 65.5 million people against COVID-19 -- 43.9 million with the first dose and 21.6 million with both doses, according to a consortium of media outlets.
