Brazil has 280 COVID deaths in 24 hours, average drops to 240 daily -ministry

Brazil has had 12,273 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 280 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

The South American country has now registered 21,909,298 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 610,036, according to ministry data, in the world's third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest.

As vaccination advances, the rolling 14-day average of COVID deaths has fallen to 240 daily, compared to the toll of almost 3,000 a day at the peak of the pandemic in April.