The average number of coronavirus cases in Brazil in the last week stood at 83,205 per day, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. | Photo: EFE​

Brasilia, January 19 (RHC)-- Brazil, one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 in the world, registered 137,103 new coronavirus infections in the last 24 hours, the second highest number of cases for one day since the beginning of the pandemic.

The South American country has not had such a high number of daily infections since September 18, when it reported 150,110 infections.

Excluding the September 18 figures, the number of infections on Tuesday is the highest since the beginning of the pandemic and exceeds the 115,230 infections reported on June 23, at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.

The number of daily infections in Brazil increased 80-fold in the last two weeks, from 1,720 cases on January 2 to 137,103 on the last day, driven by the presence of the omicron variant in the country.  With the increase in the number of infections, the average number of cases in the last week was 83,205 per day, the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.

According to Ministry of Health data, in addition to the 137,103 new cases, 351 new deaths from COVID were recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 621,513 and the number of infections to 23,211,894 since the beginning of the pandemic.

Health authorities indicated that the number of deaths has also been rising in recent days, driven by the Omicron.  The number of deaths on January 18 was the highest in the last two months since that recorded on November 17 (373 deaths).

These pandemic figures confirm Brazil as the country with the second highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world after the United States and the third highest number of infections after the U.S. and India.