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Rabat – Africa continues to show a relatively slow increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which, as of May 7, stands at 53,048, including 2,019 deaths and 18,494 recoveries.
The African continent is the second-least affected by the pandemic after Oceania.
South Africa remains the country with the highest case count in the continent, with 7,808 COVID-19 cases, including 153 deaths and 3,153 recoveries.
The number of cases in Egypt is slowly creeping up on the South African figures. The North African country has so far recorded 7,588 COVID-19 cases, including 469 deaths and 1,815 recoveries.
With 5,505 confirmed cases, Morocco comes third in the number of cases. However, with 183 deaths and 2,124 recoveries, the country boasts a significantly lower fatality rate than neighboring Algeria.
Algeria has so far recorded 4,997 COVID-19 cases, including 476 deaths and 2,197 recoveries.
The majority of the remaining countries that recorded over 1,000 COVID-19 cases are located in West Africa. Nigeria confirmed 3,145 cases, followed by Ghana (3,091 cases), Cameroon (2,267), Guinea (1,856), Cote d’Ivoire (1,516), and Senegal (1,492).
Despite their total case count, the majority of West African countries are so far maintaining lower fatality rates than the global average of 6.91%, ranging from 0.58% in Ghana to 4.76% in Cameroon.
The fatality rate in Africa currently stands at 3.8%, below the global average, while the recovery rate, currently standing at 34.86%, slightly exceeds the global recovery rate of 34.19%.
While the figures may seem promising from a medical standpoint, Africa’s battle against the pandemic and its socio-economic impacts is far from over.
With millions of people being forced into unemployment, the COVID-19 crisis could push the economy in Africa back 30 years, a report from Oxfam found.
According to the report, lockdowns in African states could lead to a 20% drop in average income and push 548 million people below the poverty threshold.
