Pedestrians walk amid COVID-19 outbreak, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 7, 2020. Brazil on Wednesday said 31,553 COVID-19 cases were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 5,000,694. (Photo by Rahel Patrasso/Xinhua)

 
Brazil on Wednesday said 31,553 COVID-19 cases were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 5,000,694.

And 734 more patients died of the disease, raising the national death toll to 148,228.

On Feb. 26, Brazil reported its first case and also the first in Latin America in the city of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city.

Brazil has the world's second-highest death toll, after the United States, and is the third worst hit by the pandemic after the United States and India.

Pedestrians walk amid COVID-19 outbreak, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Oct. 7, 2020. Brazil on Wednesday said 31,553 COVID-19 cases were reported over the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide total to 5,000,694. (Photo by Rahel Patrasso/Xinhua)

 
The state of Sao Paulo, the epicenter of the national epidemic with 36,669 deaths and 1,016,755 cases, reopened schools on Wednesday, with social distancing rules in place.

The state government announced that it will carry out tests starting next week on 19,300 people within the educational system in 20 cities to track the virus as in-person classes begin.

More than 36 million cases were reported worldwide as of 0100 GMT, Oct.8, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.