Kenya among 10 African countries with heaviest Covid-19 caseload

By Hilary Kimuyu

Kenya has been ranked number nine in Africa in terms of Covid-19 burden.

Kenya's caseload has now scaled to 14,805 out of the total 254,273 samples tested since the first case was reported on March 13, 2020.

The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases across the continent reached 736,288 on Tuesday, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) which is a specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) Commission.

South Africa is Africa's highest affected country, followed by Egypt and Nigeria. Ghana, Algeria, Morocco and Cameroon are also among the most affected countries.

Africa CDC also said that the number of deaths related to the pandemic rose from 15,082 on Monday to 15,418 as of Tuesday.

South Africa has also reported the most deaths at 5,033 while Egypt has reported 4,302 deaths.

Other than the two countries, Algeria is the only other African country that has registered more than 1,000 Covid-19-related deaths.

Kenya on Wednesday announced that the country had lost 10 patients to the pandemic bringing the tally to 260 deaths.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also stressed that some 391,898 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 in the continent have recovered.

The southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of confirmed cases, followed by northern Africa and western Africa, Africa CDC said.

Africa CDC had earlier this week said that some 40 African countries are still under "full border closure" while night-time curfew has been activated across 34 countries in an effort to halt the spread of the infectious virus.

The latest figures come as the World Health Orgaization warned against laxity in the fight against Covid-19.

This article was originally published by Nairobi News. [Photo: Al-Jazeera/Georgina Smith]