COVID-19 cases in Africa exceed 800,000 — with fatalities inching above 17,000

The number of COVID-19 cases in Africa has risen above 800,000.

About 17,088 deaths have been recorded in the region, according to a report by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of 9am on Saturday, 810,008 cases have been confirmed across 55 states on the continent.

The figures from Africa CDC showed that South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria still have the highest reported cases on the continent.

South Africa accounts for the highest confirmed cases with 421,996 cases and 6,343 deaths, followed by Egypt with 91,072 cases and 4,518 deaths while Nigeria trails behind with 39,539 cases and 845 deaths.

Ghana had recorded 31,057 cases, and 161 deaths while Algeria had 25,552 cases and 1,127 deaths.

A total of 462,374 recoveries have also been recorded across the continent. The five top countries with the highest recovery rates are 245,771 from South Africa; 31,979 from Egypt, and 27,801 from Ghana.

In Algeria, 17,369 patients have recovered from the disease while Nigeria has recorded 16,559 recoveries.

The report also showed Seychelles, the Gambia and Eritrea as countries with the lowest confirmed cases in the region.

Seychelles has the lowest number of COVID-19 cases with 108 confirmed cases and 11 recoveries.

The Gambia has the second-lowest figures with 216 cases; six deaths and 60 recoveries while Eritrea has recorded 261 cases and 189 recoveries.

On Thursday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said more than 10,000 health workers have been infected with COVID-19 across Africa.

According to WHO, preliminary data shows that health workers “make up more than 5% of cases in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and in four of these, health workers make up more than 10% of all infections”.