The total death toll from the COVID-19 in Brazil has surpassed 450,000 on Tuesday, as delays plague the hard-hit country's vaccine rollout, and epidemiologists warned a brutal new surge of the virus could be coming.

Iran PressAmerica: Brazil Health Ministry reported 2,173 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the official number of lives lost to the coronavirus in Brazil to 452,031, second only to the United States.

The situation has stabilized somewhat, with an average of 1,854 COVID-19 deaths per day over the past week -- down from more than 3,000 in mid-April.

But the number of infections has been rising steadily since early May, to an average of 66,000 per day over the past week, making epidemiologists fear the death toll is about to start rising again, too.

With 215 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Brazil is the hardest-hit country in the Americas, and among the worst affected in the world.

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