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During Epiweek 22, 14 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Togo, and United Republic of Tanzania (Figure 1). During week 22, 877 specimens were collected, and 786 were tested for influenza.

In Epiweek 22, 83 specimens tested positive for the influenza virus (positivity of 10.6%), of which 67 specimens were Influenza A, and 16 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 30), Influenza A (H3)
(n = 20), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 17), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 8), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 8).

SARS-CoV-2
In Epiweek 22, of the 857 specimens processed by 14 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 50 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 5.8%).

Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 22, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 32,190 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 1,518 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 4.7%).