RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Brazil on Sunday reported 230 more people died from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the past day, raising the death toll to 153,905.

According to the Ministry of Health, tests detected 10,982 new cases of infection in the same period, bringing the total number of confirmed cases since the onset of the outbreak to 5,235,344.

The state of Sao Paulo, the country's most populous, is the epicenter of the national outbreak, with 1,063,602 cases of COVID-19 and 38,020 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 290,878 cases and 19,765 deaths.

Brazil has the world's second-highest COVID-19 death toll, after the United States, and the third-largest outbreak, after the United States and India.