BRASILIA: Brazil has reported 74,042 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 2,311 deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The South American country has now registered 17,702,630 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 496,004, according to ministry data, in the world's third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second deadliest.