Every county in Africa has recorded a case of coronavirus. Lesotho being the last and Egypt being the first as early as February 14, 2020.
The rate of steady and in some places speedy spread has been a cause for concern for the WHO Africa office and other public health experts. More so for a continent that has resource challenges riddling a largely bogged down health sector.
Experts continue to advocate mass testing as cases of local transmission grow in a number of countries. Most countries are lifting lockdowns and reopening economies, but curfews and ban on gatherings remain in some places to combat spread and improve containment of confirmed cases.
This article looks at a periodic growth of cases across the continent, zooming in on statistics from the most impacted country per regional bloc (bold also specifically indicating recoveries and deaths.)
As of July 17, 2020, John Hopkins University statistics indicated that 41 African countries had recorded over 1,000 cases of the virus. Only South Africa – the most impacted has crossed the 100,000 mark with over 324,000 cases as of today.
Egypt is North Africa’s most impacted with Nigeria; the leader in West Africa. Kenya and Cameroon complete the regional leaders table for East / Horn of Africa and Central Africa respectively.
Countries in alphabetical order
Algeria – 21,355
Benin – 1,463
Burkina Faso – 1,038
Cameroon – 16,157 cases, 13,728 recoveries, 373 deaths
Cape Verde – 1,894
Central African Republic – 4,373
Congo-Brazzaville – 2,358
DR Congo – 8,199
Djibouti – 4,993
Egypt – 85,771 cases, 26,691 recoveries, 4,120 deaths
Equatorial Guinea – 3,071
Eswatini – 1,552
Ethiopia – 8,475
Gabon – 6,121
Ghana – 26,125
Guinea – 6,359
Guinea-Bissau – 1,902
Ivory Coast – 13,554
Kenya – 11,673 cases: 3,638 recoveries; 217 deaths
Liberia – 1,070
Libya – 1,652
Madagascar – 6,089
Malawi – 2,712
Mali – 2,440
Mauritania – 5,659
Morocco – 16,545
Mozambique – 1,383
Namibia – 1,032
Niger – 1,102
Nigeria- 34,854 cases; 14,292 recoveries, 769 deaths
Rwanda – 1,473
Senegal – 8,481
Sierra Leone – 1,678
Somalia – 3,106
South Africa – 324,221 cases; 165,591 recoveries; 4,669 deaths
South Sudan – 2,171
Sudan – 10,527
Tunisia – 1,327
Uganda – 1,051
Zambia – 1,895
Zimbabwe – 1,362
Major African stats: July 17 at 9:00 GMT:
Confirmed cases = 663,953
Active cases = 306,176
Recoveries = 343,418
Number of deaths = 14,359
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Most impacted nations per region (as of June 23):
Southern Africa = South Africa; 101,590 cases, 1,991 deaths, 53,444 recoveries
East Africa = Sudan; 8,698 cases, 533 deaths, 3,460 recoveries
West Africa = Nigeria; 20,919 cases, 525 deaths, 7,109 recoveries
Central Africa = Cameroon; 12,041 cases, 308 deaths, 7,740 recoveries
North Africa = Egypt;
