Brazil's virus deaths near 30,000, top 10,000 in Mexico

As the novel coronavirus continues to ravage Latin America, the death toll in Brazil moved close to 30,000 and passed 10,000 in Mexico on Tuesday.

In Brazil, 623 more fatalities over the past 24 hours raised the death toll to 29,937, according to the Health Ministry.

The total case count in the world’s second worst-hit country reached 526,447, as 12,247 more people tested positive for COVID-19.

Over in Mexico, 237 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 10,167.

A total of 2,771 more people tested positive for COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, raising the overall count to 93,435, the Health Ministry said.

Latin America is now one of the hardest-hit regions in the pandemic, which has claimed more than 375,500 lives around the world.

Over 6.27 million cases have been confirmed in 188 countries and regions since the virus emerged in China last year, with nearly 2.7 million people have recovered so far, according to figures compiled by the US’ Johns Hopkins University.