Every county in Africa has recorded a case of coronavirus. Lesotho being the last and Egypt being the first as early as February 14, 2020.

The rate of steady and in some places speedy spread has been a cause for concern for the WHO Africa office and other public health experts. More so for a continent that has resource challenges riddling a largely bogged down health sector.

Experts continue to advocate mass testing as cases of local transmission grow in a number of countries. Most countries are lifting lockdowns and reopening economies, but curfews and ban on gatherings remain in some places to combat spread and improve containment of confirmed cases.

This article looks at a periodic growth of cases across the continent, zooming in on statistics from the most impacted country per regional bloc (bold also specifically indicating recoveries and deaths.)

As of July 17, 2020, John Hopkins University statistics indicated that 41 African countries had recorded over 1,000 cases of the virus. Only South Africa – the most impacted has crossed the 100,000 mark with over 324,000 cases as of today.

Egypt is North Africa’s most impacted with Nigeria; the leader in West Africa. Kenya and Cameroon complete the regional leaders table for East / Horn of Africa and Central Africa respectively.

Countries in alphabetical order

Algeria – 21,355

Benin – 1,463

Burkina Faso – 1,038

Cameroon – 16,157 cases, 13,728 recoveries, 373 deaths

Cape Verde – 1,894

Central African Republic – 4,373

Congo-Brazzaville – 2,358

DR Congo – 8,199

Djibouti – 4,993

Egypt – 85,771 cases, 26,691 recoveries, 4,120 deaths

Equatorial Guinea – 3,071

Eswatini – 1,552

Ethiopia – 8,475

Gabon – 6,121

Ghana – 26,125

Guinea – 6,359

Guinea-Bissau – 1,902

Ivory Coast – 13,554

Kenya – 11,673 cases: 3,638 recoveries; 217 deaths

Liberia – 1,070

Libya – 1,652

Madagascar – 6,089

Malawi – 2,712

Mali – 2,440

Mauritania – 5,659

Morocco – 16,545

Mozambique – 1,383

Namibia – 1,032

Niger – 1,102

Nigeria- 34,854 cases; 14,292 recoveries, 769 deaths

Rwanda – 1,473

Senegal – 8,481

Sierra Leone – 1,678

Somalia – 3,106

South Africa – 324,221 cases; 165,591 recoveries; 4,669 deaths

South Sudan – 2,171

Sudan – 10,527

Tunisia – 1,327

Uganda – 1,051

Zambia – 1,895

Zimbabwe – 1,362

Major African stats: July 17 at 9:00 GMT:

Confirmed cases = 663,953

Active cases = 306,176

Recoveries = 343,418

Number of deaths = 14,359

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Most impacted nations per region (as of June 23):

Southern Africa = South Africa; 101,590 cases, 1,991 deaths, 53,444 recoveries

East Africa = Sudan; 8,698 cases, 533 deaths, 3,460 recoveries

West Africa = Nigeria; 20,919 cases, 525 deaths, 7,109 recoveries

Central Africa = Cameroon; 12,041 cases, 308 deaths, 7,740 recoveries

North Africa = Egypt;

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