ADDIS ABABA, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Some 53 African countries have conducted 91,331,072 COVID-19 tests so far, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said in the latest weekly briefing held Thursday.
The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, said 1,594,953 new tests were reported during the past one week.
This is a 15 percent increase from the previous week when 1,363,403 tests were reported.
"The cumulative positivity rate is 11.1 percent and the test per case ratio is nine percent," according to the agency.
Five countries, namely South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Ethiopia account for about 62 percent of all COVID-19 cases reported in Africa.
As of Thursday afternoon, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa had reached 10,173,541 with 232,562 deaths and 9,061,284 recoveries, according to the agency.
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 in the continent, according to the Africa CDC. ■
