Brazil takes down COVID-19 data, hiding soaring death toll

After facing severe criticism for downplaying the impact of the coronavirus, Brazil's health ministry removed all data linked to COVID-19 from the government website.

No explanation was given for erasing the data and replacing it with just fraction of the information earlier posted.

The total number of cases have been removed, with only the daily stats on display.

In a Tweet, President Jair Bolsonaro said the "cumulative data... does not reflect the moment the country is in".

"Other actions are underway to improve the reporting of cases and confirmation of diagnoses."

Bolsonaro has so far rejected lockdown measures and replaced health ministers with military officials.

The total number of cases in the country have reportedly crossed 672,000, with the death toll passing Italy this week at nearly 36,000.