BRASILIA, April 30 (Xinhua) -- Brazil registered 7,218 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health reported on Thursday, showing that the pandemic contagion curve in the country has accelerated in recent days.

According to data on the country's official COVID-19 platform, confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus rose from 78,162 on Wednesday to 85,380 on Thursday, an increase of 9 percent.

The death toll rose from 5,466 to 5,901, with a fatality rate of 6.9 percent. In the last 24 hours, 435 new deaths were registered, compared to 449 in the previous day.

The confirmed cases were found in Sao Paulo (28,698), Rio de Janeiro (9,453), Ceara (7,606), Pernambuco (6,876), Amazonas (5,254), Maranhao (3,190), Bahia (2,851), Para (2,876), Espirito Santo (2,465), Santa Catarina (2,085), Minas Gerais (1,827), Rio Grande do Sul (1,466), Parana (1,407), and the Federal District (1,356).

In the last week, there were a record number of new cases and deaths, the highest since the start of the pandemic, with 26,871 new cases and 1,885 deaths.