Africa may have passed its Covid-19 peak, says WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa may have passed its Covid-19 peak. FILE PHOTO (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa may have passed its Covid-19 peak. FILE PHOTO (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Published Aug 26, 2020

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DURBAN - The World Health Organization (WHO) says Africa may have passed its Covid-19 peak.

The continent has recorded about 1.2 million positive Covid-19 cases and over 20 000 people have succumbed to the virus. With South Africa having the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on the continent.

According to the New York Times’ Covid-19 dashboard, South Africa ranks 17th in the country's with the highest infection rate in the world. The World Health Organization, which includes more territories, ranked it 20th. There are 1,567 new cases in the country, taking the total reported to 613,017. Deaths have reached 13,308 (an increase of 149), while recoveries have climbed to 520,381, leaving the country with a balance of 79,328 active cases.

Speaking during a conference of African health ministers, on Tuesday WHO Africa regional director Matshidiso Moeti said that numbers of new cases were declining but warned against complacency to avoid a second wave.

"We are seeing that we have had what seems to have been a peak, and now we have the daily numbers of cases being reported overall in the region going down," she said.

Moeti lauded African leaders for taking "extremely courageous, difficult decisions" to implement lockdowns for their countries and economies to "avert the catastrophe foretold in early projections of how this virus would affect the African region."

Meanwhile, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) on Tuesday said some 15 African countries have so far reported more than 10,000 Covid-19 cases amid a major spike of new cases across the continent.

The Africa CDC noted that three African countries that are Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco have reported positive Covid-19 cases ranging within 50,001 to 100,000.

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