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Coronavirus pandemic

Africa’s coronavirus cases nearing 860,000, WHO says

South Africa accounts for the biggest number of infections (452,529) and biggest number of deaths (7,067)

© AP Photo/Denis Farrell

PRETORIA, July 28. /TASS/. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa has reached 859,950 after 32,432 new cases were reported in the past 48 hours, while deaths from virus-related causes across the continent have hit 18,173, adding 667 new fatalities in the same period of time, the World Health Organization (WHO) Africa branch said Tuesday, publishing statistics updated since July 26.

The agency added that 506,000 patients recovered on the continent.

South Africa accounts for the biggest number of infections (452,529) and biggest number of deaths (7,067). Egypt, meanwhile, has recorded 4,652 virus-related deaths and 92,482 infections. Algeria reported 1,163 fatalities.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria is ranked second after South Africa with 41,180 coronavirus infections and 860 fatalities, followed by Ghana (33,624 and 168).

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 16,661,800 people have been infected worldwide and more than 656,900 deaths have been reported. In addition, so far, over 10,255,900 individuals have recovered from the illness across the world.

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