Africa reaches 10 million mark for COVID-19 cases

The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that, as of this Thursday, January 13, Africa has recorded 10,173,541 confirmed COVID-19 infection cases.

According to the African Union’s Center, the number of deaths related to the pandemic reached a total of 232,562 individuals, while 9,061,284 people recovered from the virus.

The African Center for Disease Control and Prevention added that about 91,331,72 tests have been conducted throughout the continent, noting that the cumulative positive rate reached 11%, as of this Thursday.

The center confirmed that southern Africa is the region most affected by the pandemic, followed by North and East Africa, and then Central Africa.

After a six-week surge, Africa’s fourth pandemic wave, which has been mainly driven by the Omicron variant, is flattening, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

Recorded cases of infection in the continent show that the weekly number plateaued in the seven days leading up to January 9, from the previous week.

The WHO said that this marked the shortest surge since the pandemic began on the continent, where total cases have exceeded 10.2 million.

In countries experiencing a surge in cases, the fast-spreading Omicron variant has become the dominant type.

While it took around four weeks for the Delta variant to surpass the previously dominant Beta, Omicron outpaced Delta within two weeks in the worst-hit African countries, according to WHO.

Southern Africa saw a huge increase in infections during the pandemic wave but recorded a 14% decline in confirmed cases over the past week, according to the UN body.

While East and Central Africa regions also experienced falling numbers of cases, North and West Africa are seeing a rise in infections as this is the case in Morocco.

North Africa reported a 121% increase over the past week, compared with the previous seven days.