RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's COVID-19 death toll is approaching 135,000 after 829 more patients died of the COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the total number of fatalities to 134,935, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

In the same period, tests detected 36,303 new cases of infection, bringing the total caseload since the start of the outbreak here to 4,455,386.

The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in Brazil, is the most affected by the virus, with 916,821 cases of infection and 33,472 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 246,843 cases and 17,453 deaths.