Coronavirus in Africa: Outbreak 'accelerating' in continent

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

The WHO's Africa regional director Matshidiso Moeti said it was spreading beyond capital cities and that a lack of tests and other supplies was hampering responses.

But she said that it did not seem like severe cases and deaths were being missed by authorities.

So far Africa has been the continent least affected by Covid-19.

South Africa had more than a quarter of the cases and an outbreak in its Western Cape province was looking similar to recent outbreaks in Europe, Dr Moeti said.

Overall, there have been more than 7.3 million infections globally and more than 416,000 deaths.

Dr Moeti said Africa had had some 200,000 cases and 5,000 deaths, with 10 countries accounted for 75% of the cases.