PRETORIA, July 8. /TASS/. The total number of coronavirus cases in African countries rose by 18,119 to 507,187 in the past day, and the death toll climbed by 443 to 11,959, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa said on Wednesday.

According to the WHO, African’s coronavirus recoveries have reached 245,000.

South Africa accounts for the majority of cases (215,855) and fatalities (3,502). Egypt has so far reported 77,279 cases and 3,489 deaths. The coronavirus death toll stands at 968 in Algeria.

In the sub-Saharan region, Nigeria has confirmed 29,789 coronavirus cases and 669 deaths, Ghana has recorted 21,968 cases and 129 deaths.

Coronavirus pandemic

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 11,965,900 people have been infected worldwide and more than 547,000 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 6,913,000 individuals have recovered from the illness across the globe.