Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that cause disease in animals. Seven, including the new virus, have made the jump to humans, but most just cause cold-like symptoms.
Covid-19 is closely related to severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) which swept around the world in 2002 to 2003. That virus infected around 8,000 people and killed about 800 but it soon ran itself out, largely because most of those infected were seriously ill so it was easier to control
Out of the 198 Countries and territories around the world that have reported a total of 488,292 confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID-19 that originated from Wuhan, China, 46 African countries have so far reported 2,815 confirmed cases.
See the number of African countries who have been hit by the global pandemic and how many cases they have recorded so far.
Algeria(302)
Angola(2)
Benin(5)
Botswana(0)
Burkina Faso(146)
Burundi(0)
Cabo Verde(3)
Cameroon(70)
Central African Republic(5)
Chad(3)
Comoros(0)
Congo, Democratic Republic(48)
Congo, Republic(4)
Cote d’Ivoire(80)
Djibouti(11)
Egypt(456)
Equatorial Guinea(9)
Eritrea(4)
Eswatini(5)
Ethiopia(12)
Gabon(7)
Gambia(3)
Ghana(132)
Guinea(5)
Guinea-Bissau(2)
Kenya(28)
Lesotho(0)
Liberia(3)
Libya(1)
Madagascar(19)
Malawi(0)
Mali(2)
Mauritania(3)
Mauritius(48)
Morocco(225)
Mozambique(3)
Namibia(7)
Niger(7)
Nigeria(51)
Rwanda(41)
Sao Tome and Principe(0)
Senegal(105)
Seychelles(7)
Sierra Leone(0)
Somalia(2)
South Africa(709)
South Sudan(0)
Sudan(3)
Tanzania(12)
Togo(23)
Tunisia(173)
Uganda(14)
Zambia(12)
Zimbabwe(3)
TOTAL: 2,815
