COVID-19 cases in Africa surge past 4.7 million
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa has surged past 4.7 million mark, the latest data from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
The healthcare authority of the African Union said the cumulative fatalities from the pandemic is now 127,001 while more than 4.3 million patients across the continent of 55 nations have recovered from the virus.
South Africa is the most affected country in the continent having reported over 1.6 million cases according to health officials. Other countries that have a high number of infections are Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt.
A comparison of data from the countries shows that the southern Africa region is the worst hit closely followed by northern Africa and eastern Africa while central Africa is the least affected zone.
Zimbabwe has detected the first cases of the Indian coronavirus variant, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga said on Wednesday, May 19 in the central town of Kwekwe where a student returned from India in late April.
Kenya and Uganda have also reported detecting the Indian variant in the last few weeks.
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Kenya have so far confirmed a total of 166,382 positive cases after 376 people tested positive for the virus by May 19. The country’s positivity rate is 9.1 per cent.
According to the Ministry of Health, fourteen deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours; seven of them occurring on different dates within the last month and seven being late deaths reported after conducting facility record audits within the last month. This brings number fatalities in Kenya to 3,035.
