BRASILIA/BUENOS AIRES, Oct 24 (NNN-Xinhua) — Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll has reached 156,471 after 571 more patients died of the disease in the last 24 hours, the country’s Ministry of Health said.
Meanwhile, 30,026 more infections were reported, raising the nationwide count to 5,353,656, the ministry said.
Brazil is one of the hardest-hit countries by the pandemic worldwide, ranking second in terms of COVID-19 deaths, after the United States, and third in terms of confirmed cases, behind the United States and India.
The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, has been hit the worst by the disease, with 1,083,641 cases and 38,608 deaths, according to the ministry.
Brazil reported its first case on Feb. 26 in the state of Sao Paulo.
Meanwhile, Argentina decided to prolong its isolation and social distancing measures meant to control the spread of the novel coronavirus until Nov 8, President Alberto Fernandez announced.
“From the day the (current) quarantine expires, we will continue the measure for another 14 days,” said the president during a visit to the province of Misiones.
Argentina became the fifth country in the world and the second in Latin America to hit 1 million cases of COVID-19 earlier this week. “The virus has spread beyond the cities. It is also in small towns, and it is logical that this happens when people continue to travel,” Fernandez said.
Argentina registered its first COVID-19 case on March 3 and went into quarantine two weeks later. As of Friday, the country has reported 1,069,368 cases and 28,338 deaths from the virus. — NNN-XINHUA
