The African continent has exceeded 10 million confirmed COVID-19 cases as the world enters the third year of the pandemic, according to the WHO.
Speaking at a virtual panel, the UN agency’s Regional Emergency Director Abdou Salam Gueye said “more than 230,000 people have sadly died” in Africa so far.
Death rates have risen by 64 percent during the past week “mainly due to infection among people at high risk” but deaths and hospitalisations remain low compared with previous virus waves on the continent.
Africa has received more than 660 million doses of vaccines, with only about 340 million doses administered so far.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said it will consider whether to extend a global public health emergency it declared over the coronavirus, which has been in place for nearly two years.
