Iran Press/America: Despite the rising toll Brazil's two largest cities -- Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro -- reopened shopping malls, even as the health ministry said there had been more than 1,200 deaths in the last 24 hours and more than 30,000 new cases.
Brazilian officials said Thursday they had reached a deal with a Chinese firm to produce a vaccine, if clinical trials proved it was effective.
"This agreement would allow us to produce at large scale and immunize millions of Brazilians," said Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria.
In the wider Latin America region the death toll has reached 70,000.
The global death toll nears 423,844 with 7,597,301 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization.
COVID-19 was first detected in China's Wuhan in late December and has since spread across the world.
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