COVID-19 updates: Confirmed cases rise to 19,895 in Africa, Russia reports daily record of 4,785 cases

The death toll from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent reached 1,016 as the number of confirmed cases hit 19,895 as of Saturday, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, a specialized agency of the 55-member African Union (AU) Commission, in its latest situation update issued on Saturday also revealed that the number of confirmed positive cases across the continent rose from 18,333 on Friday to 19,895 as of Saturday morning.

The virus has so far spread into 52 African countries, it was noted.

Figures from the Africa CDC also show that amid the rapid spread of the virus across the continent, the highly COVID-19 affected African countries include Egypt with 2,844 confirmed cases, South Africa with 2,783 confirmed cases, Algeria with 2,418 confirmed cases, as well as Morocco with 2,564 confirmed cases.

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The death toll due to the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent also surged from 962 on Friday afternoon to 1,016 on Saturday morning, according to the Africa CDC.

The Africa CDC also disclosed that the Northern African region is the most affected area across the continent both in terms of positive COVID-19 cases, as well as the number of deaths.

The Northern African countries have so far registered more than 8,746 positive COVID-19 cases as well as 743 deaths due to the pandemic, according to the Africa CDC.

TOKYO

Japan’s health ministry and local governments said Saturday that the number of COVID-19 infections nationwide had risen to 10,098 cases as of Saturday afternoon, as the country enters the first weekend since a state of emergency was expanded nationwide in a bid to stem the spread of the virus.

MOSCOW

Russia has registered a daily record of 4,785 COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, with the total number jumping to 36,793 as of Saturday, official data showed.

Source: Xinhua