Brazil's government on Monday revised its single-day death toll from 1,382 to 525. Its health ministry said the revisions were caused by "duplication" in certain states.

Sunday's number of new cases was also amended, but upward, from 12,581 to 18,912.

According to the new figures, Brazil's total death toll is now stands at 36,455, with over 690,000 confirmed cases in the country. Some 283,952 COVID-19 patients have recovered since the outbreak in the country, while 371,351 patients remain under medical observation.

Brazil, one of the hard-hit countries by COVID-19 pandemic, registered the second highest number of confirmed cases, trailing the United States.

On Friday, the health ministry closed the webpage showing daily, weekly and monthly figures on infections and deaths in Brazilian states, after President Jair Bolsonaro claimed that the official count was "not representative" of the country's situation and threatened to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Following the move, the health ministry on Saturday released two contradictory sets of figures for the latest tally, with one reporting 12,581 deaths while another reported 525 deaths in 24 hours.

In response to Brazil's COVID-19 tally, Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, on Monday stressed it was important for Brazilians to understand where the virus is and how to manage risk, and that the WHO hoped communication would be "consistent and transparent."

(With input from Xinhua)