More than 12.3 million confirmed cases and 256,900 deaths from the Coronavirus diseases have been recorded in Africa since the pandemic outbreak in 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed.
The latest figure was released by the WHO African Region Monday on its official Twitter handle, adding that the continent has recorded more than 11 million recoveries as of 30 October.
The WHO African COVID-19 dashboard, however, shows that South Africa ranks the African country with the highest number of infections and deaths with 102,311 deaths and 4,027,744 cases.
South Africa is followed by Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt based on the number of infections but more deaths have been recorded in Tunisia and Egypts than Morocco.
According to the statistics, Morocco, a North African country, accounted for 1,265,572 infections and 16,281 deaths; Tunisia, 1,146,152 infections and 29,257 deaths, while Egypt recorded 515,401 infections and 24,798 deaths.
Nigeria ranks 10th in infections
Meanwhile, the WHO data has showed that Africa’s most populous nation- Nigeria, has recorded 266,138 cases, ranking 10th on the continent.
Apart from South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, other African countries with more infections than Nigeria are Libya with 507,034 cases; Ethiopia (493,912); Burundi (493,912); Kenya (339,078), and Zambia, with 333,669 cases.
Meanwhile, based on the figure of 3,155 deaths recorded so far, Nigeria ranks 14th on the continent in terms of the fatality rates.
The data is based on the WHO dashboard and the update posted on Sunday by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
COVID-19 global status
Globally, as of 28 October 2022, there have been 626,337,158 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,566,610 deaths, reported to WHO.
The WHO noted on its dashboard that a total of 12,830,378,906 vaccine doses have been administered globally as of 26 October 2022.
The WHO’s emergency committee on COVID-19 had met recently in October and concluded that the pandemic still constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), a status it declared in January 2020.
The WHO Director-General, Tedros Ghebreyesus, also confirmed the committee’s advice on 19 October at the UN health agency’s headquarters in Geneva.
“The committee emphasised the need to strengthen surveillance and expand access to tests, treatments, and vaccines for those most at risk,” he said.
