Coronavirus cases top 100,000 across Africa

Africa has reported more than 100,000 cases of the novel coronavirus, with the virus spreading to every country on the continent, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

There have been 3,100 deaths from the virus in Africa.

"For now Covid-19 has made a soft landfall in Africa, and the continent has been spared the high numbers of deaths which have devastated other regions of the world," said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.

During a briefing on Friday, Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO executive director of Health Emergencies Programme, said: "On the one hand, good news -- the disease hasn't taken off in a very fast trajectory, but (there's) a concern some countries are accelerating in the number of cases."

Ryan said within Africa, there are "many, many highly vulnerable groups" and the bearing of coronavirus on those groups has yet to be seen.

"We don't know what the impact of this will be in undernourished children with chronic malnutrition, we don't know what the impact of this will be in in overcrowded refugee camps. So, there's a lot still to be learned," he said.

As a comparison, Europe reported 4,900 deaths when when cases reached 100,000 on that continent, according to the press release.


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