4,700 killed as Africa’s COVID-19 toll exceed 168,000

The current number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 168,464, and at least 4,700 people have died, TopNaija reports.

This was obtained from statistics released by the World Health Organisation’s office for the African Region on Friday.

“Over 168,464 confirmed #COVID19 cases on the African continent – with more than 73,000 recoveries and 4,700 deaths,” the office wrote on Twitter.

Most cases in the region were detected in South Africa with 40,792, Egypt with 28,615, and Nigeria with 11,516.

Egypt, South Africa, and Algeria account for the highest number of related fatalities with 1,088, 848, and 681 deaths respectively.

In May, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that Africa was the least affected region in the world in terms of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

He noted that the continent had 1.5 per cent of the world’s reported infections and less than 0.1 per cent of the global deaths from the infection.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s COVID-19 toll inched a little closer to 12,000 cases on Friday with 328 new cases confirmed in 13 states and the federal capital territory (FCT).

328 new cases of #COVID19;

Lagos-121
FCT-70
Bauchi-25
Rivers-18
Oyo-16
Kaduna-15
Gombe-14
Edo-13
Ogun-13
Jigawa-8
Enugu-6
Kano-5
Osun-2
Ondo-2

11844 cases of #COVID19Nigeria
Discharged: 3696
Deaths: 333 pic.twitter.com/XQ3B7O0yIb

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) June 5, 2020

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) announced this in its update for Friday.

The past few weeks have shown a significant rise in the country’s number of confirmed cases; the toll increased from 2,950 on May 5, 2020, to 11,844 cases on June 5.

However, within that period, recoveries have also increased from 481 to 3,696 patients while the number of fatalities rose from 98 to 333.

A total of 11,844 COVID-19 cases have now been confirmed in 35 states and the FCT, with Cross River yet to record any case so far.

Nigeria’s testing capacity has also more than tripled its count in the past one month, moving from 19,512 on May 4, 2020 to 73,064 as of June 4, 2020.

However, as the NCDC has noted, increased testing means the country will record more cases.

With the rise in the number of cases, there have been concerns about enough bed spaces and isolation centres.

Lagos, for instance, has confirmed a major percentage of the total number in the country with more than 5,000 cases.