PRETORIA, May 7. /TASS/. The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Africa has reached 2,006, while 51,239 infections have been reported across the continent as well as around 15,500 recoveries, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa branch said Thursday.

South Africa accounts for the biggest number of infections (7,808) and 153 deaths. Algeria, meanwhile, has the biggest coronavirus death toll (476) and 4,997 infections. Egypt reported 469 fatalities and 7,588 cases, while Morocco identified 5,382 cases and 182 deaths, and Tunisia registered 1,022 cases and 43 fatalities.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is ranked second after South Africa with 3,145 coronavirus infections and 103 fatalities, followed by Ghana (2,719 and 18), Cameroon (2,265 and 108), Guinea (1,856 and 11), Ivory Coast (1,516 and 18) and Senegal (1,433 and 12).

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.

On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. According to the latest statistics, over 3,800,000 people have been infected worldwide and more than 265,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 1,300,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.