COVID-19 cases surge beyond 16,000 in Africa

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

More than 1,200 new coronavirus cases have been registered in 52 countries in Africa on Wednesday, taking the total tally to 16,285, an authority said.

According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention dashboard, 878 people have died so far across the continent due to the virus.

The number of deaths the previous day stood at 816.

Some 3,200 patients, it said, have recovered as of Wednesday afternoon, while the figures keep changing by the minute and hour.

North Africa takes the highest toll from the virus followed by West Africa, South Africa, Central Africa and East Africa.

In terms of individual countries, Southern Africa still is a country with the highest number of cases and deaths, 2,415 and 27 respectively.

The second heavily-hit country is Egypt in North Africa with 2,350 cases and 178 deaths.

The virus has infected more than 2 million patients globally and has claimed over 128,000 lives, according to figures compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University. Around 501,200 have recovered.