This archive report was first published on 7 August 2020.
On August 7, 2020, Aljazeera reported that Africa had surpassed one million COVID-19 cases, citing a lack of testing and real spread of the virus on the continent unknown.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), nations across the continent have recorded 1,000,054 infections and at least 21,724 deaths, accounting for around five percent of global cases.
Just five countries account for 75 percent of all cases in Africa, a statistic that has left experts bewildered.
‘We haven’t seen the peak in Africa yet,’ said Mary Stephen, technical officer at the WHO’s regional office for Africa. ‘Since countries started relaxing lockdown measures, we have seen an increasing number of cases and most of these – more than 80 percent – are coming largely from 10 countries,’ she added.
The virus has spread to all 54 countries on the continent of 1.2 billion people, stretching already fragile healthcare systems and crippling economies.
South Africa has notched up more than 529,000 infections, 53 percent of the continental caseload, and the fifth-biggest in the world.
However, experts say the numbers are cooked and that the actual extent of the contagion is being underestimated because of a lack of testing and poor access to data.
