As of 19 March, 34 countries across Africa had reported 733 cases of COVID-19 as the disease is formally known. 16 people had already succumbed to the disease by close of Thursday.
“The death count in Africa is currently 16 from five countries. Those 16 deaths are distributed among Algeria, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Morocco and Sudan,” John Nkengasong, Africa CDC Director told reporters on Thursday in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
The number of African countries with confirmed cases of COVID-19 has dramatically increased in less than a week, a testament to the dangerous nature of the pandemic.
In terms of regions, North Africa has the highest cases of Coronavirus (391) followed by Southern Africa (158)mWest Africa (109), Eastern Africa (39) and Central Africa (36).
“Over the weekend the continent tipped over and as we now know over 34 countries have reported corona-virus infection,” said Nkengasong.
The Africa CDC has since deployed more than 100 experts across the continent and thousands of test kits to 43 countries to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
“By next Monday, we will have rolled out 60,000 kits,” said Nkengasong.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Africa should wake up and prepare for the worst.
“I think Africa should wake up. My continent should wake up,” said Ghebreyesus, who hails from Ethiopia.
Rwanda which so far has 11 cases has banned all flights in and out of the country for 30 days effective from Friday, March 20th, as it races to contain the deadly coronavirus.
Considering that, here are 34 countries across Africa which have reported positive cases of COVID-19.
