The Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has disclosed that five African countries represent about 69 percent of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across the African continent amid uneven impact of the pandemic on the continent.
The five highly-COVID-19 affected African countries include, South Africa 1,278,303 accounting 41 percent, Morocco 455,055 accounting 14 percent, Tunisia 168,568 accounting 5 percent, Egypt 152,719 accounting 5 percent, as well as Ethiopia 129,455 accounting 4 percent.
The Africa CDC on Thursday also disclosed that some 20 African countries have reported higher case fatality rates than the global 2.2 percent.
Among the 20 African countries that have reported higher case fatality rates than the global average include Sudan at 6.1 percent, Egypt 5.5 percent, Liberia 4.5 percent, Chad 4.0 percent, as well as Mali 3.9 percent.
On Wednesday, the Deputy Africa CDC Director, Ahmed Ogwell, told Xinhua that the African continent is taking an active part in the global development of a COVID-19 vaccine as well as clinical trials.
“We are very much part of the clinical trials and that’s the way that we get to be part of vaccine development,” Ahmed told Xinhua.
“Second, there are institutions in Africa who have already started the process of developing COVID-19 vaccine for the continent,” he emphasized.
