Brazil surpassed six million confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the health ministry said after reporting 38,397 new cases over the past 24 hours. 

The South American nation has now joined the U.S. and India as the only countries to have passed the six-million mark. 

Brazil has also reported 552 new fatalities, pushing its official number of COVID-19-related deaths to 168,613, the world's second highest death toll so far.