COVID-19: Brazil tops 66,000 confirmed cases

15:50, 29 April 2020

BRASILIA. KAZINFORM - Brazil has reached 66,501 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus, as per official figures updated Monday (Apr. 27). In the last 24 hours, another 4,613 were added to the amount of infected people, up 7.5 percent from Sunday’s (26) 61,888, Agencia Brasil reports.

It was the highest number of cases in a day after Saturday (24), when 5,514 new cases were reported.

The death toll rose to 4,543, with 338 new obits from Sunday to Monday (27), an increase of eight percent. The mortality rate stood at 6.8 percent.

São Paulo still concentrates the highest number of deaths in the country (1,825), followed by Rio de Janeiro (677), Pernambuco (450), Ceará (284), and Amazonas (320). Of the 27 states, Tocantins has the lowest amount of deaths—two.

During a press conference at the Planalto presidential palace, Health Surveillance Secretary Wanderson de Oliveira argued that the number of deaths in 24 hours should take into account that these figures include data from previous days.

«These obits are being closed. They took place at different moments, in previous days. They represent situations in which professionals managed to include investigations on the cause. But it doesn’t mean that all 338 [new deaths registered today] took place from yesterday to today,» Wanderson pointed out.

He said the ministry has been discussing with state secretaries plans to have new data fed in daily, not weekly. The initiative may reduce incongruity among data. As an example, he mentioned the difference between the total from the Health Ministry and the total registered by local clerk’s offices, the latter with 247 deaths more than the amount registered by the ministry.

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