SAO PAULO, Jan 11 — Brazil’s weekly rolling average of deaths per day reached 1,111 cases yesterday, surpassing 1,000 deaths for the first time since early August, according to a Reuters calculation.

In the week ending August 2, Brazil had registered 1,014 deaths on average per day, while this week it ended at 1,111.

Brazil has recorded 29,792 additional confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours, along with 469 deaths from Covid-19, the Health Ministry said yesterday.

The country has registered more than 8.1 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 203,100, according to ministry data, the world’s second-deadliest coronavirus outbreak.

The rise in deaths in Brazil comes amid growing pressure to speed up the vaccine roll out, which is lagging regional peers. Mexico, Chile and Argentina have already begun immunizations.

The country’s health regulator Anvisa received on Friday the application for the emergency use of AstraZeneca’s and Sinovac’s vaccines. — Reuters