RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Brazil on Wednesday reported 869 more deaths from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), raising its national total to 138,977 since the start of the pandemic.
Tests also detected 33,281 infections in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4,624,885, according to the health ministry.
The state of Sao Paulo, the most populated in the country, is the epicenter of the national epidemic, with 951,973 cases and 34,492 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 254,885 cases and 17,911 deaths.
According to the state-run Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), about 17.9 million people, equivalent to 8.5 percent of the Brazilian population, carried out a test to detect COVID-19 by August. Enditem
