Covid-19: Africa surpasses 5 million cases
ADDIS ABABA— Africa’s COVID-19 cases have hit five million cases since it emerged in China in December 2019 and arrived on the continent in February 2020.
A total of 5,008,656 cases of the coronavirus have been reported in 54 countries and territories, including almost 109,800 in the past seven days, for a daily average of 15,680.
Over 134,000 people have died with recoveries also on the rise. South Africa, remains Africa’s most impacted country with a total of 1,722,086 cases.
Records indicate that almost seven out of every 10 new African cases were reported in five countries: Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia.
Africa is currently the only region where the pandemic is still on the rise, with a weekly increase of 30 percent, and it is at risk of a third wave of the disease.
The continent is also struggling to make significant headway in the area of vaccination compared to other parts of the world.
Africa’s current vaccination stats stands at 2.87 shots per 100 inhabitants, compared with a global average of 29.56 according to figures collected from official sources.
Most African countries are depending on free jabs from the global equitable vaccines distribution platform, COVAX, a few others are depending on bilateral procurement especially from China, Russia and the United States.
Source: International Monetary Fund