Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa exceed 1.5 million

The total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 1,506,185 as of Sunday, the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC Africa) said.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll from COVID-19-related illnesses in Africa had reached 36,614 as of Sunday.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also said that the number of people who have recovered from the infectious virus across the continent has reached 1,243,259 so far.

Amid the uneven impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in African countries, the African CDC said that the African countries most affected by COVID-19 in terms of number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia and Nigeria, respectively.

The Southern Africa region is the region most affected by COVID-19 both in terms of the number of confirmed positive cases and the number of deaths, it was noted.

The North African region is the second African region most affected by COVID-19, it was noted.

So far, only three African countries have confirmed COVID-19 cases greater than 100,000.

South Africa currently has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, reaching 679,716. The country also has the highest number of COVID-19-related deaths, at 16,938, according to the Africa CDC.

Morocco comes next in terms of the number of confirmed cases, with 131,228 confirmed cases. The North African country has 2,293 deaths, it was noted.

Egypt is the third most affected African country in terms of number of cases, with 103,575 confirmed cases. The country has 5,970 deaths, it was noted.

Total COVID-19 cases on the continent make up about 4.4 percent of the global count, according to the Africa CDC.

Africa’s CDC also said 12 African countries are reporting COVID-19-related death rates higher than the global fatality rate of three percent.

These African countries include Chad, Liberia, Niger, Egypt, Mali, Angola, Algeria, and Sudan.

The average continental death rate is currently around 2.4 percent.

The African continent also accounts for about 3.6 percent of the total COVID-19-related deaths reported globally, according to the Africa CDC.

Amid the growing number of COVID-19 cases across the African continent, the adverse impacts of the pandemic are affecting the continent in various sectors, in addition to the socioeconomic and health sectors.