COVID-19 infections in Africa represent 0.71% of world figure

Bahrain’s application to help curb the spread of the coronavirus

By Habib Toumi

MANAMA: Only two of the 54 countries making up the African continent are virus-free: Comoros and Lesotho.

The African countries have so far 11,440 confirmed COVID-19 cases, representing 0.71% of the world figure, 574 deaths (0.59% of the world), and 1,405 recoveries (0.39% of the international figure).

South Africa topped in Southern Africa with the highest number of infections, reaching 1,845, 18 deaths and 95 recoveries.

Mauritius was worst infected in East Africa with 273 cases, 7 deaths and 19 recoveries.

Burkina Faso led in West Africa with 414 cases, 23 deaths and 134 recoveries

In Central Africa, Cameroon had 730 cases, 10 deaths and 60 recoveries

Egypt led in North Africa in the number of infections with 1,699 cases, 118 deaths and 348 recoveries.

In the Arab countries, 18,430 cases have been reported since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and until Thursday evening, representing 1.15 % of the global figure of 1,605,277.

The number of those who died is 632 (0.66% of the global figure of 95,751) and of those who recovered is 3,422 (0.35% of the world figure of 356,925.)

Of the 22 Arab countries, only the Comoros has not reported any case so far, while Yemen said it has only one case.

Three Gulf countries where a high percentage of the population is comprised of expatriates, often unskilled and laborers working in the booming construction and service sectors, lead in terms of infection.

Saudi Arabia has 3,287 cases, the United Arab Emirates has 2,659 cases and Qatar has 2,376 cases.

However, in terms of deaths, Algeria, the largest country in North Africa, has reported 235 deaths, followed by Egypt, the most populous Arab country with more than 100 million people, which reported 118 deaths and Morocco, another North African country, with 97.