RIO DE JANEIRO, August 4. /TASS/. Brazil’s novel coronavirus cases rose by 16,641 in the past day, reaching 2,750,318, according to the Health Ministry’s official data.

This is the lowest growth in new coronavirus cases since June 8. According to the Health Ministry, some 70% of the total number of cases (1,912,319) have recovered and another 743,334 people are active virus carriers.

The death toll from the disease caused by the coronavirus rose by 561 to 94,665. Some 1,308 cases and 45 fatalities are recorded per 100,000 citizens.

Last week, 313,364 new cases were registered, nearly 6,300 fewer than on July 19-25, when this figure reached a record high of 319,653. Before that for the first time since the start of the epidemic in the country the number of cases started to decrease. The number of fatalities despite some decline (7,114 on July 26-August 1) over the past 10 weeks reaches nearly 1,000 per day or more.

Brazil, where the first coronavirus case was confirmed on February 26, is ranked second after the United States for the biggest number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities. The Health Ministry earlier predicted that the situation would stabilize by July and in August the infection spread would begin to slow. According to the ministry, in June the country reached a plateau in the number of fatalities.