The
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak continues to rapidly expand
through the African continent. Since our last situation report on 1 April 2020
(External
Situation Report 5), three new countries in the WHO
African Region, including Malawi, Sao Tome & Principe and South Sudan have
reported confirmed COVID-19 cases. Forty-five (96%) out of 47 Member States of
the WHO African Region are now affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving only
Comoros and Lesotho with no reported cases to date.
Over the past week, the number of cases has nearly doubled and the number of
deaths has more than tripled with 3 339 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 229
new deaths reported in the WHO African Region. As of 7 April 2020, a cumulative
total of 7 105 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 324 deaths (case fatality ratio
4.6%) have been reported across the 45 affected countries in the region. The
list of affected countries and their respective number of cases is presented in
Table 1.
Figure 1 shows the temporal distribution of cases by country. The most affected
countries in the WHO African Region are: South Africa (1 749 cases), Algeria (1
468 cases), Cameroon (555 cases), Burkina Faso (364 cases), Cote d’Ivoire (349
cases) and Ghana (287). Together, these countries account for 67% of the cases
reported in the region. In the past week, the number of cases in Cameroon and
in Algeria have increased by 4 and 2.5 folds, respectively. Fourteen countries
have recorded over 100 cumulative confirmed cases. The highest case fatality
ratios were observed in Algeria (CFR: 13%) and Burkina Faso (7%). Figures 2
shows the temporal distribution of cases in these six most affected countries.
Information on sex and age is currently available for 1 757 and 1 372 cases,
respectively. The male to female ratio among the confirmed cases is 1.7, and
the median age is 42 years old (range: 0 – 105). The distribution of cases
according to age and sex is presented in figure 4; older males continue to be
disproportionately affected by this outbreak.
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download the complete situation report (PDF).
