Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has disclosed that a total of 11,064,898 COVID-19 cases has been reported in Africa so far.
The specialised healthcare agency of the African Union disclosed that the death toll across the continent as at Thursday stands at 245,237, and a total number of 10,205,894 patients have recovered from the virus so far.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Ethiopia are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said the Africa CDC.
South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa with 3,645,269 cases, followed by Morocco with 1,156,356 cases, Tunisia with 971,460, and Libya with 478,488.
In terms of caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region in Africa, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed that it has continued to see a decline in COVID-19 cases globally, with a 17 percent drop compared with last week in what appear to be positive signs for the world.
This was made known by WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, in a speech posted on its website on Thursday. He revealed that the number of deaths had also reduced.
Ghebreyesus, speaking at a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva, said, “this is the fourth week of declining cases.
‘The number of deaths also fell for the second week in a row, with 88,000 new deaths reported last week – a terrible number, but a 10 percent decline from the previous week.
‘These declines appear to be due to countries implementing public health measures more stringently.’
‘But remember, we have been here before. Now is not the time to relax measures or for any of us to let down our guard.
‘Every life that is lost now is all the more tragic as vaccines are now being rolled out; the virus continues to circulate widely and new variants are emerging.
‘This is not an unexpected development, but it gives new urgency to our global efforts to bring this pandemic under control.
‘Every time the virus mutates, it has the potential to blunt the effectiveness of our vaccines, medicines, and tests,’ he said.
According to him, there are three major threats to the UN-led international equitable vaccine initiative, COVAX, that requires urgent attention amidst news of a decline in cases and deaths of COVID-19.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK