Africa tops 8.5M COVID-19 cases, records decline in new infections

By Addis Getachew

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AA) – Africa has so far recorded over 8.5 million COVID-19 cases and 220,000 deaths, an update by the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday, hinting at a decrease in new infections.

The number of recoveries stands at 7.96 million, it said, adding the continent of 1.3 billion people has managed to conduct laboratory tests on 8 million specimens.

In his weekly briefing, the center’s director, John Nkengasong, said the rates of new cases and deaths showed a decrease.

Comparing the week spanning Oct. 25-31 and Nov. 1-7, Nkengasong said 31,000 new cases were registered in the past week, representing a decrease of 4% from the previous week.

A 14% average decrease in the rate of new cases was shown between the periods compared as the continent saw 1,123 new deaths over the past week.

Nkengasong, the Cameroonian top immunologist, said though the continent’s vaccines performance remains negligibly low, efforts are being made to ratchet up vaccination.

The coverage of fully immunized people stands at 6.06% in Africa, with Morocco being the best performer covering 60% of its population, he said.

According to the Africa CDC update, 357.9 million doses of vaccines have been supplied to the continent, of which 204.3 million doses have been administered.

It said 9.20% of the African population have been partially immunized while 6.06% fully immunized.