Africa on alert for 2nd Covid-19 wave, as cases top 2mn

Addis Ababa, Nov 19 : African countries are on high alert for a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic as the number of confirmed cases on the continent hit 2 million on Thursday.
Africa reported its first 1 million confirmed cases on August 7 after it registered the first infection on February 14 in Egypt, reports Xinhua news agency.
As of Thursday, the continent’s overall caseload and death toll stood 2,013,388 and 48,408, repectively, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The World Health Organization (WHO) said the testing level in Africa was still very low compared to other regions.
“Most African countries are focused on testing travellers, patients or contacts, and we estimate that a significant number of cases are missed,” says WHO’s regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti in late October.
The most COVID-19 affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt and Ethiopia, figures from the Africa CDC show.