African countries conduct more than 51M COVID-19 tests: Africa CDC

By
XINHUA
-
A medical worker wearing protective equipment takes a swab sample from a student for a COVID-19 test in Rabat, Morocco, Jan. 12, 2021. Morocco on Tuesday reported 801 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally of infections in the country since March 2 to 453,789. A campaign to detect the new variants of COVID-19 has been organized in middle and high schools across six regions in the country. (Photo by Chadi/Xinhua)

At least 51,430,713 COVID-19 tests have been conducted by African countries, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said Thursday.

The Africa CDC said 1,171,879 new tests were carried out during the past week, registering a 16 percent increase from tests carried out in the previous week that was 1,014,234, the agency announced in its latest continental update.

According to the agency, the overall positivity rate of the continent was 10.3 percent.

As of Thursday, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa had reached 5,288,323, with 139,226 deaths and 4,669,913 recoveries, according to the agency.

South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia and Egypt are the countries with the most cases in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

South Africa has recorded the highest COVID-19 cases in Africa at 1,861,065 while the northern African country of Morocco reported 527,696 cases as of Thursday.

Related

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR