Today marks exactly six months since Africa’s first Covid-19 case was confirmed. On the 14th of February 2020, the Egyptian health ministry confirmed the country, and indeed the continent’s first case of Covid 19.
Since then, more than 592,000 cases have been reported in every single African country; with the last to confirm a case being Lesotho, who declared a positive patient back in May.
The response to Covid-19 has been varied in many parts of the continent. From Madagascar, who at one stage claimed to have found a cure; to Senegal, who were hailed in early days for successfully keeping their numbers low.
As it stands, South Africa is regarded as the epicenter of the pandemic on the African continent with more than half of the confirmed cases coming from there. As well as that, South Africa now has the 10th highest total of confirmed cases in the world.
On Sunday, president Cyril Ramaphosa addressed South Africans as he declared numerous changes to the country’s alert-level 3: notably, the re-banning of the sale of alcohol.
Experts suggest that countries in the Southern Hemisphere (especially those for whom winter will be continuing for at least a few more months) are approaching their peaks in the next few months of this year.
Meanwhile in East Africa Kenya recorded its highest number of COVID-19 fatalities in a day as 12 patients succumbed bringing death toll to 197. Here is a full breakdown of how Covid-19 has impacted the continent to this date:
Summary of Covid 19 in Africa:
- Confirmed cases = 594,955
- Active cases = 286,467
- Recoveries = 295,242
- Number of deaths = 13,246
Confirmed Cases Across Africa (In Alphabetical Order)
- Algeria – 19,195
- Angola – 506
- Benin – 1,378
- Botswana – 399
- Burkina Faso – 1,036
- Burundi – 191
- Cameroon – 15,173
- Cape Verde – 1,623
- Central African Republic – 4,288
- Chad – 880
- Comoros – 317
- Congo-Brazzaville – 2,028
- DR Congo – 8,033
- Djibouti – 4,972
- Egypt – 82,070
- Equatorial Guinea – 3,071
- Eritrea – 232
- Eswatini – 1,351
- Ethiopia – 7,560
- Gabon – 5,942
- (The) Gambia – 64
- Ghana – 24,518
- Guinea – 6,141
- Guinea-Bissau – 1,842
- Ivory Coast – 12,766
- Kenya – 10,105
- Lesotho – 233
- Liberia – 1,010
- Libya – 1,433
- Madagascar – 4,867
- Malawi – 2,364
- Mali – 2,411
- Mauritania – 5,355
- Mauritius – 342
- Morocco – 15,745
- Mozambique – 1,157
- Namibia – 785
- Niger – 1,099
- Nigeria- 32,558
- Rwanda – 1,337
- Sao Tome and Principe – 729
- Senegal – 8,135
- Seychelles – 100
- Sierra Leone – 1,635
- Somalia – 3,059
- South Africa – 276,242
- South Sudan – 2,021
- Sudan – 10,250
- Tanzania – 509
- Togo – 720
- Tunisia – 1,263
- Uganda – 1,025
- Zambia – 1,895
- Zimbabwe – 985
