Brazil approaches 100,000 deaths from COVID-19: ministry

FILE PHOTO: Physiotherapist Ana Carolina Xavier of FamilyCare, a group specialising in mobile physiotherapy care, and who also works at the ICU of Lagoa-Barra field hospital for COVID-19 patients, is treated by a colleague with the Brazilian physiotherapy method called RTA (Re-Balancing Thoracic-Abdominal), after being diagnosed with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at her house in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil June 25, 2020. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

Brazil reported 53,139 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,237 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Brazil has registered 2,912,212 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 98,493, according to ministry data. It is the world's worst coronavirus outbreak after the United States.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; editing by Diane Craft)