RIO DE JANEIRO, June 9. /TASS/. Brazil has documented 707,412 cases of COVID-19, a disease caused by the novel coronavirus, since the start of the pandemic, with 15,654 cases identified in the past 24 hours, the Brazilian health ministry informed on Monday.

According to the data provided, 679 people have died from the virus in the past 24 hours, with the death toll reaching 37,134. Meanwhile, 6,088 people have recovered in the past 24 hours, with 290,040 recoveries documented in the country in total. This data corresponds to the numbers published by regional authorities.

Brazil has recorded its first case of the virus on February 26. It currently ranks second in the world on the number of coronavirus cases.

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. According to the latest statistics, over 7,100,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 406,300 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 3,466,500 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.