Africa's confirmed COVID-19 cases pass 1.47m mark

The total number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases in Africa reached 1,472,433 as of Wednesday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said, reported Xinhua.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll due to illnesses related to COVID-19 in Africa has reached 35,954 as of Wednesday.

The agency also said the number of people who have recovered from the infectious virus across the continent reached 1,217, 457.

As of Wednesday, more than 14.8 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted across the African continent with a 10 percent positivity rate, the Africa CDC said in its latest continental COVID-19 update report on Wednesday.

John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa CDC, said that the COVID-19 tests that were conducted across the African continent would help reach "20 million-test target by the end of October, 2020."

Amid the uneven impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on African countries, the Africa CDC said that the most COVID-19 affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

The Southern Africa region is the most COVID-19 affected region both in terms of the number of confirmed positive cases as well as the number of deaths, it was noted.