South Africa became the first African country to record one million coronavirus cases on Sunday, according to new data published by the country’s health ministry.
Second Wave of COVID-19
Currently suffering a second wave of infections, of which the majority is a new variant of the coronavirus, South Africa is the hardest-hit country on the African continent, with 1,004,413 infections and 26,735 deaths, the data showed.
According to AFP tally at 1900 GMT, a total 2,658,646 cases were recorded in Africa and 62,649 fatalities.
Last week, South Africa recorded a daily average of 11,700 new infections, up 39 percent over the previous week.
For three consecutive days, from Wednesday until Friday, the daily number of new cases topped 14,000 but dropped sharply again on Saturday and Sunday.
Authorities are considering reimposing restrictions to rein in the spread of the virus.
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COVID-19 Cases in Africa
Morocco is the second hardest-hit African country, with 432,079 cases and 7,240 deaths, followed by Egypt with 131,315 cases and 7,352 fatalities, Tunisia with 130,230 infections and 4,426 deaths and Ethiopia with 122,413 and 1,901 respectively.
Africa has not been as hard hit by the coronavirus as other regions, such as Europe with more than 25 million infections, the United States with 19.5 million, Latin America and the Caribbean with 15 million, Asia with 13.7 million and the Middle East with close to four million.
