Rio de Janeiro, Oct 12 : Brazil has said it registered 290 more Covid-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 150,488. According to the country's health ministry on Sunday, 12,345 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours, bringing its total caseload to 5,094,982, Xinhua news agency reported. Brazil's Covid-19 fatalities passed the 150,000 mark on Saturday, making it the country with the world's second-highest death toll after the US. The Latin American country has the world's third-highest number of Covid-19 cases, surpassed only by the United States and India. The state of Sao Paulo, the most populous in the country, is the epicentre of the national outbreak, with 1,037,660 cases and 37,256 deaths, followed by Rio de Janeiro, with 283,675 cases and 19,308 deaths. Brazil has managed to reduce its average number of deaths and daily cases in recent weeks. /IANS