Brazil's Covid-19 death toll nears 172,000

Brasilia, Nov 28: Brazil has reported 514 new fatalities due to the novel coronavirus, raising its total death toll to 171,974.

According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 34,130 new cases, pushing the accumulated caseload to 6,238,350.

Brazil now has the world's second-highest Covid-19 death toll after the US, and the third largest caseload next to the US and India.

After seeing a decline in daily deaths and cases since September, the Latin American country has witnessed a rise in both categories in November, accompanied by a spike in hospital occupancy in large cities.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second largest city, has seen occupancy rates at both public and private hospitals topping 90 per cent.

Local authorities are considering reopening field hospitals to deal with the overflow of patients.