Brazil's daily death toll from the new coronavirus reached a record 1,179 on Tuesday, May 19, Al Jazeera reports.

The highest daily toll before that had been on May 12 when 881 people died. The pandemic has killed at least 17,971 people in Brazil, according to the Health Ministry.

President Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticised for his handling of the outbreak, and has been a vocal opponent to coronavirus lockdowns that he sees as too damaging to the economy.

With 271,885 infections, Brazil has the third-highest number of cases in the world after the US and Russia.