Africa coronavirus cases have pass one million as urgent action, "aggressive
and bold" action is needed. According to the African Union (AU) body
dealing with the pandemic.It
says South Africa - where testing has been widespread - accounts for more than
half of all cases. Tanzania's lack of data meanwhile is a "concern"
for the AU. Experts say a lack of comprehensive testing across Africa means the
true extent of the pandemic is not known.
Tanzania, for example,
has not published figures for weeks and in early July its health minister said
the virus was "heading towards an end". "We continue to reach
out [to Tanzania] but we're not having the right responses," director of
the AU's Centres for Disease and Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Dr John
Nkengasong, told the BBC.
In the continent
overall, more than 22,000 people have died with Covid-19 and almost 690,000
people have recovered, the figures show. Just over eight million tests have
been carried out, but Dr Nkengasong said at least 13 million tests should have
taken place.
Africa's first
coronavirus case was confirmed in Egypt in February - three weeks after Europe,
and two months after the outbreak began in China in December.
- Country Mostly Affected
The two countries with
the highest numbers of cases are South Africa and Egypt. They accounted for 75%
of all the new cases reported by mid-July.
South Africa has the
highest recorded number of total cases and reported deaths, and make up more
than half of all the cases in Africa.
