A teenager (second right) waits in line with his hand on his shoulder to receive a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at the Cultural Paz Flor event in Luanda on Dec 16, 2021.(OSVALDO SILVA / AFP)
ADDIS ABABA / ROME / SANTIAGO – The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa reached 11,403,955 as of Saturday evening, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.
The specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) said the death toll across the continent stands at 252,048 and some 10,781,861 patients have recovered from the disease so far.
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are among the countries with the most cases on the continent
South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are among the countries with the most cases on the continent, said Africa CDC.
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South Africa has recorded the most COVID-19 cases in Africa with more than 3,755,459 cases followed by the northern Africa country Morocco with 1,164,597 cases as of Saturday evening, it said.
In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region, according to the Africa CDC.
Italy
Italy reported 70,520 COVID-19 related cases on Saturday, against 73,212 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily number of deaths fell to 143 from 202.
Italy has registered 162,609 deaths linked to COVID-19 since its outbreak emerged in February 2020, the second-highest toll in Europe after Britain and the eighth highest in the world. The country has reported 16.1 million cases to date.
Patients in hospital with COVID-19 – not including those in intensive care – stood at 9,914 on Saturday, down from 10,076 a day earlier.
There were 43 new admissions to intensive care units, decreasing from 46 on Friday. The total number of intensive care patients stood at 409, edging down from a previous 411.
Some 421,533 tests for COVID-19 were carried out in the past day, compared with a previous 437,193, the health ministry said.
An elderly couple receive a BioNtech Pfizer COVID-19 jab as a booster in Santiago, on Feb 7, 2022. (JAVIER TORRES / AFP)
Chile
Chile on Saturday reported 2,539 new COVID-19 cases and 24 related deaths in 24 hours, raising the national caseload to 3,544,463 and the death toll to 57,375.
Currently, there are 10,696 active cases of the disease, with 286 people hospitalized in intensive care units, including 207 on ventilators, said the health ministry.
The ministry said that the number of new cases has fallen by 47 percent nationwide in the past two weeks, with outbreaks gradually declining in all regions.
