According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the African Union (Africa CDC), in the 55 member states of the organization, in the last 24 hours there has also been a record number of recovered patients: 49,945 more.
The data indicates that the African continent now accounts for 1,842,463 infected (plus 15,429), 44,843 dead (plus 930) and 1,542,849 recovered.
The region that has contributed the most to this increase in fatalities in the last 24 hours is North Africa, which now registers 15,650 deaths (plus 802). Egypt alone has reported another 611 deaths. In this area of Africa, those infected with the new coronavirus total 549,215 (plus 10,564).
The highest number of infections and deaths continues to occur in southern Africa, with 816,723 infections and 21,172 deaths from covid-19. In this region, South Africa, the most affected country on the continent, accounts for a total of 732,414 cases of infection and 19,677 deaths.
East Africa has 222,733 cases and 4079 deaths and in the West African region there are now 192,765 infected, of which 2787 are fatal victims. Central Africa accounts for 61,027 cases and maintains 1155 deaths.
Egypt, which is the second African country with the most deaths, after South Africa, has 6929 dead and 108,530 infected, followed by Morocco, which has 4059 deaths and 240,951 cases of infection.
Algeria follows, with 60,169 infections and 2011 deaths.
Among the six countries most affected are also Ethiopia, with 98,391 infections and 1508 deaths, and Nigeria, with 63,508 infections and 1155 deaths.
Among the African countries that have Portuguese as their official language, Angola leads in number of deaths and Mozambique has the highest number of cases.
Angola has 299 deaths and 12,102 cases, followed by Cape Verde (97 deaths and 9,149 cases), Mozambique (97 deaths and 13,391 cases), Equatorial Guinea (85 deaths and 5092 cases), Guinea-Bissau (42 deaths and 2414 cases) and São Tomé and Príncipe (16 deaths and 958 cases).
The first case of covid-19 in Africa emerged in Egypt on February 14, and Nigeria was the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to register cases of infection on February 28.
The covid-19 pandemic has already caused more than 1.2 million deaths in more than 48.1 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a balance sheet made by the French agency AFP.
The disease is transmitted by a new coronavirus detected at the end of December 2019 in Wuhan, a city in central China.
