Five African countries represent about 69 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa, amid uneven impact of the pandemic on the continent, according to data from the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The five highly-COVID-19 affected African countries include, South Africa 1,278,303 accounting for 41%, Morocco 455,055 with 14%, Tunisia 168,568 with 5%, Egypt 152,719 accounting for 5%, as well as Ethiopia 129,455 accounting for 4%..
The total COVID-19 cases in Africa amounted to 3,176,575 as of Friday, Africa CDC said, while the death toll related to the pandemic stood at 76,752 with 2,594,088 recoveries.
On Friday, Egypt reported 879 new COVID-19 cases and 52 new fatalities, bringing the country’s total to 154620 cases and 8473 deaths. 121792 cases have recovered:
The Africa CDC on Thursday also disclosed that some 20 African countries have reported higher case fatality rates than the global 2.2%.
Among the 20 countries that have reported higher case fatality rates than the global average include Sudan at 6.1%, Egypt 5.5%, Liberia 4.5%, Chad 4.0%, as well as Mali 3.9%.
On Wednesday, the Deputy Africa CDC Director, Ahmed Ogwell, told Xinhua that the African continent is taking an active part in the global development of a COVID-19 vaccine as well as clinical trials.
“We are very much part of the clinical trials and that’s the way that we get to be part of vaccine development,” Ahmed told Xinhua.
“Second, there are institutions in Africa who have already started the process of developing COVID-19 vaccine for the continent,” he emphasized.
