WHO Reveals Countries With Highest Number Of Coronavirus In Africa

The number of confirmed cases in Africa has been released by the World Health Organisation. According to WHO the Coronavirus in Africa has increased to 18,000 with over 900 deaths.

The organisation stated this while revealing that 44 countries in Africa have confirmed cases for COVID-19.

The UN’s health agency disclosed this on Friday in its official twitter account @WHOAFRO.

“As COVID-19 spreads beyond capital cities in Africa, there must also be a response at the grassroots level.”

“A wide network of community polio health workers in Nigeria are using their expertise and technology to support COVID-19 surveillance.”

The breakdown on the WHO African Region COVID-19 dashboard showed that South Africa, Algeria and Cameroon had continued to top the list of countries with the highest reported cases.

“South Africa has 2,605 cases and 48 deaths followed by Algeria with 2,268 cases and 348 deaths, while Cameroon has 855 confirmed cases with 17 deaths.”

South Sudan, Sao Tome and Principe, Burundi and Mauritania still remain countries with lowest confirmed cases in the region.

It showed that South Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe were the lowest confirmed cases, which had four cases each with zero death.

Burundi was the second country with the lowest confirmed cases with five reported cases and zero death.

Mauritania in the third category with the lowest cases as the country had recorded seven confirmed cases with one death.

Also, the dashboard showed that COVID-19 cases had risen to 373 confirmed cases with 11 deaths in Nigeria.

“Also, the COVID-19 Situation Report showed the number of cases in the WHO African Region had increased by 51 per cent and the number of deaths by 60 per cent.

“As of 14 April 2020 (epidemiological week 16) a cumulative total of 10, 759 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 520 deaths (Case Fatality Ratio (CFR): 4.8 per cent) have been reported across the 45 affected countries in the region,’’ it said.

According to the report, the COVID-19 pandemic has reached a new milestone in the region, with over 10, 000 cases and over 500 deaths being reported across all Member States with the exception of Comoros and Lesotho.

Six countries (Algeria, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Niger and South Africa) accounted for two-thirds of the cases in the region.

In Algeria, although a decrease in case incidence was observed in the past two weeks, the high case fatality ratio is of grave concern.

“There is a need to strengthen case management and conduct in-depth epidemiological analyses to better understand the risk factors associated with these deaths.

“The upsurge of cases in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana requires particular attention.

“Current response measures in these countries need to be reinforced in order to rapidly contain the spread of the outbreak.

“Although the weekly incidence rate appears to have substantially slowed down over the past two weeks, the situation remains critical.

“National authorities need to stay alert and continue to implement proven public health measures such as active case finding, testing and isolation of cases, contact tracing, physical distancing and promotion of good personal hygiene practice,’’ it stated.