Brazil reports 610 new COVID-19 deaths: health ministry

FILE PHOTO: A student walks by an information board about coronavirus disease (COVID-19) symptoms on the first day of classes of Sao Paulo state's schools at Professor Milton da Silva Rodrigues school in Sao Paulo, Brazil November 3, 2020. REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli

Brazil reported 23,976 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, and 610 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The South American country has now registered 5,590,025 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 161,106, according to ministry data, in the world's most fatal outbreak outside the United States.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Chris Reese)