Brazil registers 287 new Covid-19 fatalities, toll now at over 173,000

Brazil registered 21,138 new infections and 287 new deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising its national caseload to 6,335,878 and death toll to 173,120, the Health Ministry reported Monday.

Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the coronavirus, with the world's second-highest death toll and the third-largest caseload.

Also on Monday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) voiced deep concern over a sharp increase in infection and fatality rates in Brazil.

"I think Brazil has to be very, very serious," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a press conference in Geneva.

The South American country managed to flatten the curve between September and November, but statistics rose again after lockdown measures were eased.