PRETORIA, July 4. /TASS/. African nations have seen a single-day spike in coronavirus cases by 29,609 to 44,983. The number of coronavirus-related deaths has risen by 224 to 10,847, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa said on Saturday.

According to the office, 214,000 patients have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. South Africa accounts for the biggest number of coronavirus cases across Africa - 177,124, with 2,952 fatalities. The highest death toll - 3,201 - is reported by Egypt. Algeria has registered 937 deaths from the coronavirus.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is second to South Africa (27, 564 cases and 628 deaths), followed by Ghana (18,892 cases and 117 deaths).

In late December 2019, Chinese officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 11 million people have been infected worldwide and about 525,000 deaths have been reported.