Africa's Covid-19 Cases Surpass 3.2m: Africa CDC

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

A woman watches as paramedics put a man with Covid-19 symptoms into an ambulance in Pretoria, South Africa on January 15, 2021.

Phill Magakoe | AFP

Xinhua News Agency

Addis Ababa

Covid-19 cases in Africa had reached to 3.26 million as of Monday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

According to the continental disease control and prevention agency's Africa Covid-19 dashboard, the death toll from the pandemic stood at 78,911 as of Monday, with 2.6 million recoveries.

The southern African region is the hardest-hit area in Africa in terms of the number of cases, followed by northern African, according to the Africa CDC.

The five highly-affected African countries include South Africa with 1,337,926 cases, Morocco with 459,671 cases, Tunisia with 180,090 cases, Egypt with 156,397 cases and Ethiopia with 131,195 cases, according to the latest figures from the Africa CDC.

Most fatalities

South Africa is also the  most affected African country in terms of Covid-19-related deaths at 37,105 fatalities.

According to the African Union (AU) Commission's specialised healthcare agency, the five highly-affected African countries presently account for about 69 per cent of the total in Africa.

Amid the recent spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases, the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (Avatt) recently announced that a provisional 270 million vaccine doses had been secured for AU member states.

At least 50 million doses from this tranche will be available during the crucial period of April through June of this year, according to the statement issued by the South African president's office last week.