Photo: AFP

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's death toll from the novel coronavirus has climbed to 50,617 after 641 patients died in the previous 24 hours, the Health Ministry said on Sunday.

Over the same period, tests detected 17,459 new cases of infection, raising the total to 1,085,038.

The rates of infection and mortality ranked Brazil as having the second-largest outbreak in the world, after the United States.

The southeast state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populated, is the epicenter of the national outbreak, with 219,185 cases of infection and 12,588 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 96,133 cases and 8,875 deaths, and Ceara, with 92,855 cases and 5,523 deaths.