Coronavirus: Cases rise to 23,000 in Africa – WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo, says the number of Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in Africa has risen to over 23,000.

The UN’s health agency gave the update on its official twitter account, @WHOAFRO on Tuesday.

“More than 23,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported on the African continent, with over 5,900 recoveries and 1,100 deaths,’’ it said.

The WHO African Region COVID-19 dashboard showed that in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa suffered the most severe outbreak while Cameroon and Ghana having more than 2,000 confirmed cases.

The breakdown on the dashboard showed that South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon had continued to top the list of countries with the highest reported cases.

South Africa has 3,300 cases and 58 deaths followed by Algeria with 2,718 cases and 384 deaths, while Cameroon has 1,163 confirmed cases with 42 deaths.

According to WHO, South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Burundi and Mauritania still remain countries with the lowest number of confirmed cases in the region.

It showed that South Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe had the lowest number of confirmed cases, with each having four cases with zero death. Burundi, the update showed was the second country with the lowest number of confirmed cases with six reported cases and one death.

Mauritania, the third country with the lowest number of cases, has recorded seven confirmed cases with one death. The breakdown also shows that Nigeria is number 9 among the countries with the highest number of cases with 541 confirmed cases and 19 deaths.

Giving an update, however, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said 38 new cases of COVID-19 had been reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Nigeria to 665.