RIO DE JANEIRO, July 6. /TASS/. The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in Brazil increased by 26,051 in the past 24 hours to bring the total to 1,603,055, the national health ministry’s data published Sunday shows.

Over the past 24 hours, 602 coronavirus-related fatalities were recorded, while 64,867 total deaths are identified in Brazil, and more than 906,000 patients recovered from the virus.

The southeastern region of Brazil is the epicenter of the infection, which includes the states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais. There are more than 553,000 infections and 29,750 deaths recorded there. Brazil’s northeast remains the second most-affected region, as its nine states have almost 547,000 infections and 20,957 coronavirus-related fatalities.

Brazil reported its first coronavirus case on February 26 and is second on the list of hardest-hit countries in the world in both infections and deaths after the United States. The national health ministry earlier forecast that the situation would stabilize by July, while the infection rates would slow down in August to subside by September. According to the agency, the country’s coronavirus deaths plateaued in June.

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.