Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC)
  • Multimedia content

  • Documents (2)
    • Africa CDC COVID-19 Brief 14 APRIL 20
    • COVID-19 Scientific and Public Health Policy Update – (14 April 2020)
  • All (2)
Source: Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) |

Coronavirus - Africa: Update on the ongoing Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Global Epidemic, Brief 13

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, April 14, 2020/APO Group/ --

Outbreak Update: Since the last brief (7 April 2020), 562,026 new confirmed1 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and 44,014 new deaths have been reported globally. This is a 46% increase in cases reported. To date, a total of 1,773,987 COVID-19 cases and 111,680 (CFR: 6%) related deaths have been reported worldwide. Two new countries and territories2 are reporting cases and five new countries and territories3, including four African countries, are reporting deaths for the first time this week. The distribution of cumulative cases (proportion of global cases %) from the WHO reporting regions (excluding Africa) are as follows: Eastern Mediterranean Region 94,995 (5%), European Region 913,349 (52%), Region of the Americas 610,742 (34%), South-East

Download document - Africa CDC COVID-19 Brief 14 APRIL 20: https://bit.ly/34FC1xc

Download document - COVID-19 Scientific and Public Health Policy Update – (14 April 2020): https://bit.ly/2V7iwu4

Asia Region 16,883 (1%), and Western Pacific Region 122,138 (7%). For more detailed information on cases and deaths being reported outside of Africa, refer to the WHO daily situation reports4.

As of 9 am EAT 14 April 2020, a total of 15,284 COVID-19 cases and 816 (CFR: 5%) deaths have been reported in 52 African countries. Out of 52 Member States that have reported cases, six have community transmission, 44 have local transmission and two have imported cases only. Since the last brief, the number of COVID-19 cases has increased by 52% (5,198 cases). The five countries in Africa with the highest cumulative number of cases (proportion of reported cases in Africa) are South Africa (2,272; 15%), Egypt (2,190; 14%) Algeria (1,914; 13%), Morocco (1,763;

12%) and Cameroon (820; 5%). When population is taken into consideration, Djibouti (30.2), Mauritius(25.5), Seychelles (11.2), Tunisia (6.1), and Morocco (4.8) are reporting the most cases per 100,000 population within the continent. Fifteen countries are reporting case fatality rates higher than the global case fatality rate of 6%. See Table 1 for the full list of countries in Africa reporting  cases,  deaths,  and  COVID-19  recoveries  in  addition  to  transmission  type  being reported. Africa CDC is working with all affected countries and is mobilizing laboratory, surveillance, and other response support where requested. 

Table 1. Confirmed COVID-19 Cases Reported in Africa5 7-14 April 2020, 9 am EAT

Country

No. of cases (new)

No. of deaths (new)

No. of recovered

Transmission Type6

Central Region

1,274 (324)

39 (6)

170

Burundi

5 (2)

1 (1)

-

Local

Cameroon

820 (170)

12 (3)

130

Local

Central African Republic

11 (2)

-

4

Local

Chad

23 (14)

-

2

Local

Congo

74 (25)

5 (0)

10

Local

DRC

241 (61 )

20 (2)

20

Local

Equatorial Guinea

21 (5)

-

3

Local

Gabon

75 (45 )

1 (0)

1

Local

Sao Tome and Principe

4 (4)

-

-

Under Investigation

Eastern Region

1,377 (516)

32 (14)

232

Djibouti

298 (208)

2 (2)

41

Local

Eritrea

34 (3)

-

-

Local

Ethiopia

74 (30)

3 (1)

14

Community

Kenya

208 (50)

9 (3)

40

Local

Madagascar

108 (27)

-

21

Local

Mauritius

324 (80)

9 (2)

42

Local

Rwanda

127 (22)

-

25

Local

Seychelles

11 (0)

-

-

Local

Somalia

60 (43)

2 (2)

2

Local

South Sudan

4 (3)

-

-

Local

Sudan

29 (17)

4 (2)

5

Local

Tanzania

46 (22)

3(2)

7

Local

Uganda

54 (2)

-

18

Community

Northern Region

6,625 (2,138)

619 (252)

1,336

Algeria

1,914 (491)

293 (120)

591

Community

Egypt

2,190 (868)

164 (90)

488

Local

Libya

25 (7)

1 (0)

9

Local

Mauritania

7 (1)

1 (0)

2

Local

Morocco

1763 (643)

126 (46)

203

Local

Tunisia

726 (130)

34 (12)

43

Community

Southern Region

2,434 (636)

37 (20)

455

Angola

19 (3)

2 (0)

2

Imported

Botswana

13 (7)

1 (1)

-

Local

Eswatini

15 (5)

-

8

Local

Malawi

16 (11)

2 (2)

-

Local

Mozambique

20 (10)

-

2

Local

Namibia

16 (5)

-

3

Local

South Africa

2,272 (604)

27 (15)

410

Community

Zambia

45 (6)

2 (1)

30

Local

Zimbabwe

17 (7)

3 (2)

-

Local

Western Region

3,574 (1,582)

89 (32)

702

Benin

35 (9)

1 (1)

5

Local

Burkina Faso

515 (170)

28 (10)

170

Local

Cape Verde

10 (4)

1 (0)

1

Local

Côte d’Ivoire

626 (381)

6 (3)

89

Local

Gambia

10 (6)

1 (0)

2

Imported

Ghana

566 (279)

8 (3)

4

Local

Guinea

319 (198)

-

17

Local

Guinea-Bissau

40 (22)

-

-

Local

Liberia

59 (45)

6 (3)

4

Local

Mali

126 (79)

10 (5)

26

Local

Niger

544 (291)

13 (3)

86

Local

Nigeria

343 (105)

10 (5)

91

Community

Senegal

291 (64)

2 (0)

178

Community

Sierra Leone

10 (4)

-

-

Local

Togo

77 (19)

3 (2)

29

Local

Total

15,284 (5,198)

815 (27)

2,895

NEW Africa CDC Response Activities:

Surveillance:

  1. AFTCOR’s weekly surveillance technical working group met on 1 April 2020 to strategize on innovative ways to provide remote technical capacity and improved policy recommendations to Member States, backed up by Member State data, in this era of closed borders and restricted movement.
  2. Africa CDC will start holding weekly disease surveillance webinars on priority topics, like early detection and containment of COVID-19 cases, to support technical teams within the AU Member States’ ministries and governments. The English and French Webinar were launched on Wednesday (8 April) and Tuesday (14 April), respectively.
  3. Africa CDC will host the second weekly disease surveillance webinar on "Understanding the WHO First Few Cases (FFX) protocol and the Case record form (“know your epidemic”)” and “How to use Go data” on Wednesday 15 April 2020 for English speaking countries and Friday 17 April 2020 for French speaking countries at (16:00-17:00 hours EAT).

Healthcare Preparedness

1. Africa CDC initiated a continent-wide network of 300 clinicians from across the continent to discuss COVID-19 clinical management and is holding weekly webinars. The next webinar is scheduled for 16 April 2020 to discuss management of frontline healthcare workers.

Recommendations for Member States:

  1. All Member States should enhance their existing surveillance7 to include COVID-198 and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI)9 or pneumonia cases. Examples of enhanced surveillance include:
    1. Adding questions about travel, contact history, and testing for coronaviruses to existing influenza surveillance systems;
    2. Notifying healthcare facilities to immediately inform local public health officials about persons who meet the case definition for COVID-19, SARI and/or have recent travel to a country with local transmission or history of contact with a case.
  2. Member States should continue to enhance surveillance at the borders to screen incoming travelers for severe respiratory illness and a history of recent travel to affected countries or territories reporting local or community transmission. Member States should
  3. Member States should perform contact tracing of confirmed cases based on transmission type and country capacity.10
  4. Notify WHO and Africa CDC immediately if suspected or confirmed cases of infection with novel coronavirus are identified. Africa CDC should be notified by emailing AfricaCDCEBS@africa-union.org.
  5. Provide guidance to the general public about seeking immediate medical care and informing healthcare providers about recent travel or contact history in anyone who develops symptoms of severe respiratory illness.

1 Per WHO, effective 17 February 2020, ‘confirmed’ cases include both laboratory-confirmed and clinically diagnosed (Hubei province, China only).
2 Yemen and Saint Pierre and Miquelon
3 Burundi, Djibouti, Malawi, Malta, Slovakia and Somalia
4 WHO coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation reports: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel- coronavirus-2019/situation-reports
5 New numbers reported since last weekly report (7 April 2020)
6 Definitions modified from WHO for clarity in the African context: Community transmission: indicates countries experiencing large outbreaks of local transmission defined through an assessment of factors including, but not limited to: large numbers of cases not linkable to transmission chains, large numbers of cases from sentinel lab surveillance, multiple unrelated clusters in several areas of the country; Local transmission: indicates that the source of infection is within the country; Imported cases: indicates that all cases being reported by country have been acquired outside of the country
7 Africa CDC Protocol for enhanced surveillance for COVID-19 in Africa: https://africacdc.org/download/protocol- for-enhanced-severe-acute-respiratory-illness-and-influenza-like-illness-surveillance-for-covid-19-in-africa/
8 WHO COVID-19 surveillance guidance and case definition: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel- coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/surveillance-and-case-definitions
9 WHO SARI case definition: anyone with an acute respiratory infection with a history of fever (or measured fever of ≥ 38 C°) and cough with symptom onset within the last 10 days that requires hospitalization. https://www.who.int/influenza/surveillance_monitoring/ili_sari_surveillance_case_definition/en/
10 Africa CDC Guidance on Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Pandemic: https://africacdc.org/download/guidance-on- contact-tracing-for-covid-19-pandemic/

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).