The number of COVID-19 cases in Africa has hit the one million mark with experts warning that the continent is yet to reach its peak.
The virus has affected all 54 countries on the continent of 1.2 billion people.
More than 21,000 people have so far died across Africa from the COVID-19 disease, while over 700,000 have recovered.
South Africa, which accounts for more than half of the continent’s registered cases, is the worst-affected African nation and the fifth worst-hit globally.
Egypt is in second place with 94,000 confirmed infections, followed by Nigeria, Ghana, Algeria, Morocco and Kenya.
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently warned of an “acceleration” of the disease in Africa as experts cast doubts about the accuracy of the number of coronavirus infections.
“We haven’t seen the peak in Africa yet,” Mary Stephen, technical officer at the WHO’s regional office for Africa, told Aljazeera.
“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 said.
The landmark of one million cases has triggered concerns that Africa’s healthcare systems will be overwhelmed as the novel disease hits populations.