Brazil reports 389 new COVID deaths, lowest Monday toll since December

(Corrects to deaths per day not per week in third paragraph)

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil had 15,143 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours and 389 deaths from COVID-19, the lowest death toll for a Monday since early December, according to Health Ministry data.

The South American country has now registered 19,953,501 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 557,223, according to ministry data, in the world's third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest.

As vaccination advances, the rolling 7-day average of COVID deaths has fallen to one third of the toll of almost 3,000 per day at the peak of the pandemic in April, according to a Reuters tally.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Leslie Adler)