The death toll attributable to the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19 on the African continent as of Wednesday, May 6, stood at 1,947 according to the latest statistics. Since the virus was first reported in Africa on February 14 in Egypt, the number of confirmed cases has gone up to more than 50,000 and of these, over 17,000 have since recovered. In Africa, Algeria has the highest number of fatalities, which stands at 470. Egypt, despite being the continent’s most affected in terms of infections, has recorded 452 deaths as against Morocco’s 181. In sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and occupied the top five with the highest death toll with 148, 64, 48, 38, and 34 respectively. Meanwhile, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, has warned that cases could spike across the continent as more testing is rolled out in the coming weeks. Africa could see 300,000 deaths from the coronavirus this year, according to the pan-African commission in the report issued on April 17. Even with “intense social distancing.” under the best-case scenario the continent could see more than 122 million infections, the report said. So far, Rwanda has reported a tally of 268 cases of which 130 have recovered. However, with no reported fatality to date, the country on May 4 eased the lockdown allowing most businesses to resume operations but with strict guidelines. Among the guidelines, everyone has been urged to put on facemasks in public and in multi-family compounds, to continue washing hands regularly, and to maintain at least one metre between individuals.
