RIO DE JANEIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd April, 2020) The number of people infected with COVID-19 in Brazil has increased by 1,074 to 7,910 within the past 24 hours, the national Health Ministry said.
Within the same period of time, the death toll has risen by 24 percent - or 58 people - to 299.
"7,910 cases have been confirmed, 299 people have died, the mortality rate stands at 3.8 percent," the ministry said in a statement on late Thursday.
Thursday has become the second day in a row with more than 1,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Brazil.
Later, a secretary of the Health Ministry said that the coronavirus had begun to spread in Brazil in January, a month before the first case was officially confirmed by the authorities.
"During the investigation, we learned that the first case of COVID-19 [in Brazil] emerged in January ... In late January, the virus was likely circulating in the country," the official said.
The first case of the coronavirus disease was confirmed in Brazil on February 26 in the city of Sao Paulo. The patient was a man who had arrived from Italy, one of the biggest epicenters of the pandemic.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. To date, more than 1 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 51,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
