Brasilia, Feb 21 (UNI) Brazil registered 1,212 deaths from Novel Coronavirus in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 245,977, the Ministry of Health said.

The ministry also reported 57,472 more cases, bringing the national count to 10,139,148.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, is the hardest hit by the pandemic, with a total of 57,743 deaths and 1,971,423 cases.

Brazil ranks the third in the world in COVID-19 cases, after the United States and India, and second in deaths behind the United States.

So far, the South American country has vaccinated more than 5.75 million people against COVID-19, or 2.72 percent of the population.

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