Africa CDC Weekly Event Based Surveillance Report, March 2023

Update to event:
+As of 6 p.m. East African Time (EAT) 2 March 2023, a total of 12,264,338 COVID-19 cases and 256,742 deaths (case fatality ratio [CFR]: 2.1%) were reported by the 55 African Union (AU) Member States (MS). This represents 2% of all cases and 4% of all deaths reported globally. Forty-two (76%) AU MS are reporting case fatality rates (CFR) higher than the global CFR. Fifty three MS have reported COVID-19 cases infected with the Alpha (50 MS), Beta (45), Delta (52), Gamma (3) and Omicron (51) variants of concern (VOC). Additionally, 32 MS have detected the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant, two MS reported the Omicron sublineage (XBB.1.5) and 11 Member States are now reporting the Omicron sublineage (BF.7 or BA.5.2.1.7). Fifty-four (98%) MS are currently providing COVID-19 vaccination to the general population. Cumulatively, 964.7 million doses have been administered on the continent. Of these doses administered, 480 million people have been partially vaccinated, 406.2 million have been fully vaccinated, and 47.6 million have received a booster dose.

Eritrea is the only AU MS yet to start COVID-19 vaccination roll out. For Epi week 8 (20 – 26 February 2023), 2,311 new COVID-19 cases were reported, which is a 40% decrease in the number of new cases reported compared to the previous week (7). The Southern region accounted for 75% of the new COVID-19 cases reported this week, followed by the Northern (11%), Western (10%), Central (3%) and Eastern (1%) regions. South Africa (3) had the highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases per million population among all MS. Last week, 8 new COVID-19 deaths were reported in Africa, which is 167% increase in new deaths reported compared to the previous week.
The Southern and Northern regions each accounted for 50% of the new COVID-19 deaths reported this week. No deaths were reported in the Central, Eastern and Western regions this week. More than 67 thousand tests were conducted during the past week, reflecting a 100% increase in the number of tests compared to the previous week. The weekly % test positivity has decreased from 11% to 3% compared to the previous week. Since February 2020, over 125.9 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Africa.