Angela Onwuzoo
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says more than 86,000 people have died from COVID-19 on the continent since the outbreak of the viral infection in December 2019 in China.
According to the Africa CDC in its latest update on Wednesday, the continent has now recorded 3,473,940 cases, with 86,898 fatalities.
The African Union health agency notes that out of the over 3.4million cases that had been recorded on the continent so far, 2,955,394 recoveries had been reported.
In the Africa CDC latest report, the Central African region has 86,317 cases; 1,591 deaths and 73,481 recoveries; while Cameroon has the highest figures with 29,617cases; 462 deaths and 28,045 recoveries.
East Africa, according to the report, recorded 355,055 cases; 6,681 deaths and 290,745 recoveries; with Ethiopia leading the region with 134,569 cases; 2,075 deaths and 120,748 recoveries.
In Northern Africa, there are now 1,069,076 cases; 28,708 deaths and 902,476 recoveries; while Morocco has the highest figures of 467,493 cases ; 8,187 deaths and 444,823 recoveries.
South Africa is still leading countries in the Southern African region with 1,423,578 cases ; 41,797 deaths and 1,254,674 recoveries as the region recorded 1,654,134 cases ; 46,018 deaths and 1,423,351 recoveries.
Nigeria maintains the highest figures in the West African region with 124,299 cases ; 1,522 deaths and 99,276 recoveries as the region now has 309,358 cases; 3,900 deaths and 265,341 recoveries.
The African Union Chairperson and President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, had on Tuesday accused developed countries of hoarding much-needed coronavirus vaccines at the expense of poorer nations.
Speaking at a virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum, Ramaphosa called on wealthy nations to release any excess doses “so that other countries can have them.”
“The rich countries of the world went out and acquired large doses of vaccines. Some countries even acquired up to four times what their population needs.
“We are all not safe if some countries are vaccinating their people and other countries are not vaccinating. We all must act together in combating the virus”, Ramaphosa had said.
The World Health Organisation had recently warned that the world is on the brink of a “catastrophic moral failure” if wealthier nations don’t ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, warned richer countries against excluding poorer ones by cutting bilateral deals with vaccine suppliers.
“I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure — and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries. Although 39 million doses have been administered in more than 40 higher-income countries, one poor country has given only 25 doses”, the WHO chief had said.
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