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Strategic Response to COVID-19 in the WHO African Region

Strategic Response to COVID-19 in the WHO African Region: February to December 2020 (Update - May 2020)

The COVID-19 epidemiological situation is evolving rapidly and expanding geographically in affected countries. The WHO African Region has witnessed a significant increase in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases with over 200 new confirmed cases reported daily. Of the 47 countries in the WHO African Region, 46 countries have reported confirmed cases with local transmission occurring now in most of the countries.

As of 3 May 2020, cumulatively, over 3.3 million confirmed cases and nearly 240,000 deaths have been reported globally from over 210 countries, areas or territories. In the WHO African Region, 46 countries have reported a total of 29,463 confirmed cases and 1,079 deaths with case fatality rate (CFR) of 3.7%. South Africa (6,782); Algeria (4,474); Nigeria (2,388); Ghana (2,169); Cameroon (2,077); Guinea (1,650); Côte d’Ivoire (1,398); Senegal (1,273); Niger (750); Democratic Republic of the Congo (682), Burkina Faso (662); and Mali (563) have reported over 500 confirmed cases. A total of 10,082 patients have recovered from COVID-19.

Sub-Saharan Africa had 26.4 million Internal Displaced Populations (IDPs), refugees and other humanitarian groups affected by crises representing 35% of the total population globally by end of 2018.