'13% decrease in Africa virus cases over past week'

By Rodrigue Forku

YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AA) - There has been a 13% decrease in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa over the past week, the WHO said on Thursday.

In its COVID-19 situation report, the WHO Africa said 84% of the patients have recovered so far.

‘’The African Region has continued to observe a levelling in both COVID-19 cases and deaths. We registered a 13% decrease in case incidence during the past seven days, with, however, a 7% increase in deaths for the same period,’’ it said.

There are over 1.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases on the African continent, including 35,000 deaths and 1.2 million recoveries, according to the UN health agency.

Meanwhile, infections among health workers are increasing with 43,514 (3.7%) cases reported in 43 countries since the beginning of the outbreak.

South Africa remains the most affected, with 27,360 (63%) health professionals infected. Although it accounts for over half of all cases (57%) in the Africa region, it recorded a 21% decrease in caseload, but a 15% increase in virus-linked deaths.

Ten African states make up 87% of all reported infections in the continent. These are South Africa, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Senegal.