Brasilia, Mar 7 (IANS): Brazil has registered 1,555 new Covid-19 fatalities, bringing the nationwide death toll to 264,325, the second highest in the world, the Ministry of Health reported.

It also reported 69,609 new cases in the same period, raising the caseload to 10,938,836, the third largest globally, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Ministry said that Brazil ended a week with high numbers of new cases and deaths, as the South American country broke its record of daily fatalities on Wednesday with 1,910.

As the country faces another wave of the pandemic, driven by the more contagious variant that was found in the state of Amazonas, many states have enacted curfews and banned non-essential business activities after reaching a critical level of capacity in hospital intensive care units.

To take the strain off the health system, the state of Sao Paulo has asked for volunteer healthcare workers who can help at field hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Bahia have requested an increasing number of mobile cold storage units due to the high demand for mortuary services.

Since January 17, Brazil has vaccinated more than 10 million people, with more than 8 million having received the first dose.