Covid-19: Africa’s Death Toll Rises As South Africa Leads – Report

Since the coronavirus was first recorded in Africa on February 2020, Friday’s report by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (AfricaCDC) has revealed that covid-19-related deaths in the continent has increased to 76,752.

The AfricaCDC (technical institution of the African Union) stated that as of today (Friday), a total of 3,176,575 cases were recorded while 2,594,088 recoveries have been registered so far.

The update also captured the death toll in South Africa which rose to 35, 852- the highest in the continent.

Explaining the reason for the upsurge in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that it was due to a new covid-19 variant discovered there.

“In addition, a new variant of the virus called 501Y.V2 is circulating widely in South Africa, accounting for most of the new infections during the second wave,” it stated on Thursday.

Recall that WHO had urged everyone to be wary of the SARs-like virus, saying that strict compliance with the covid-19 public health advisory was crucial.

But in its report on Nigeria, WHO said : “Nigeria is also carrying out more investigations on a variant identified in samples collected in August and October.While for now there are no reports of the COVID-19 variant circulating in the United Kingdom cropping up in the African region, further investigation is needed.”