March deadliest month of pandemic in Brazil with 66,500 deaths

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Hard-hit Brazil's coronavirus death toll soared in March, its deadliest month yet in the pandemic, with 66,573 people killed by COVID-19, more than double the previous record.

The South American country, whose hospitals have been pushed dangerously close to collapse by a new surge of severe cases, has now recorded a total of 321,515 deaths from COVID-19, the health ministry said -- a toll second only to that of the United States. -- Agence France-Presse