A medic works at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing site in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 31, 2020.(Photo: Xinhua)

Brazil on Monday recorded 561 new deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the national death toll to 94,665, according to the country's health ministry.

Meanwhile, tests have detected 16,641 new infections, taking the total caseload to 2,750,318, said the ministry.

Brazil has become the hardest hit country in Latin America and the second-worst hit worldwide, second only to the United States in deaths and the total number of COVID-19 infections.

The state of Sao Paulo, Brazil's most populous state, is the epicenter of the national outbreak, with 560,000 infections and 23,365 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 168,064 infections and 13,604 deaths.