SAO PAULO, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Ministry of Health on Friday reported 51,546 COVID-19 infections and 1,288 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the accumulated totals to 9,765,455 cases and 237,489 deaths.
The South American country is prepared to skip this year's traditional Carnival street celebrations and parades for the first time, with all activities canceled to avoid large gatherings in Brazil's main cities.
Since the beginning of the year, the most critical situation has been in the northwestern state of Amazonas, where one of the variants of the novel coronavirus was detected.
According to the Amazonas State Health Surveillance Foundation, 91 percent of the cases registered since December corresponded to the new variant of the coronavirus.
On Friday, scientists from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation research institute reported that the P.1 variant first detected in Amazonas was found in five other states.
According to state-owned news agency Agencia Brasil, among the objectives of scientists is to understand the spread of the COVID-19 variants in the country and identify whether the mutations can affect vaccine response. Enditem
