Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has defended his government's move to partially withhold official data on the scale of the world's second-largest coronavirus outbreak.

Late on Friday, Brazil's Health Ministry took down a website showing the evolution of the epidemic over time and by state and municipality. The ministry also stopped reporting a total tally of confirmed cases, which have shot past 645,000 — more than anywhere outside the United States — and its overall death toll, which just passed Italy with more than 35,000.

“The cumulative data ... does not reflect the moment the country is in,” Bolsonaro said on Twitter, citing a note from the ministry. “Other actions are underway to improve the reporting of cases and confirmation of diagnoses.”