AFRICA – Across Africa, at least 20 countries are experiencing sharp increases in infections that have already surpassed or are projected to top earlier peaks, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Over the past week, Covid-19 infections on the continent jumped by 31%, while the number of deaths rose by 19%, the agency said.

The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa has reached 5,394,709, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) reported.

The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, says the death toll from the pandemic stood at 140,154 while 4,736,725 patients across the continent had recovered from the disease.

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

In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.

Delta variant pushes South Africa’s deaths to over 60,000

South Africa, the worst virus-hit country in the continent, on Monday crossed the threshold of 60,000 virus deaths, health officials announced, a day after a stricter lockdown was enforced.

At least 512 new hospital admissions were reported, pushing the total number of hospitalized people to 11,801.

The health authority said 12,222 new cases had been recorded over the last 24 hours, 28.3 percent of those tested.

Gauteng province, home to the administrative capital Pretoria and financial hub Johannesburg, is the outbreak’s current epicenter, accounting for around 69 percent of the latest daily increase.

Government and scientists over the weekend announced that the highly contagious Delta variant was driving the surge in South African infections, which is testing the capacity of hospitals.

South Africa has 1,941,119 cases and 60,038 deaths.

Tanzania finally makes Covid-19 statistics public

Tanzania has recorded 100 new Covid-19 cases since the third wave of the viral disease broke out across the globe, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said on Monday.

Speaking during her maiden press conference at State House in Dar es Salaam, President Hassan said 70 of the 100 patients were in a critical condition.

“About 70 are on ventilators,” she said.

It is the first time Tanzania had made Covid-19 statistics public since May 2020.

Nigeria to get nearly 4M vaccines by August

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, will receive another batch of nearly four million doses of vaccines under the Covax scheme by August.

Covax was set up to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines, particularly to low-income countries, and has already delivered more than 80 million doses to 129 territories.

Nigeria, home to some 200 million people, got some four million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March with which it started a nationwide vaccination program.

The virus has killed 2,119 people and infected 167,467 in Nigeria since the first index case in February last year.

Full vaccination will offer the continent high levels of protection against the Delta variant.