The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says the COVID-19 case fatality rate on the continent “is becoming very troubling” as it creeps ever higher than the global one. John Nkengasong told reporters that the fatality rate on the 54-nation continent is now 2.6 per cent while the global one is 2.2 per cent.

Twenty African countries including South Africa, Sudan and Congo have rates higher than the global average as a resurgence of cases in parts of the continent has a far deadlier toll than the initial wave of infections last year. Africa’s confirmed deaths in the pandemic are approaching 1,00,000, with more than 3.6 million cases overall. Nkengasong says “it would be a tragedy if we begin to normalise these deaths.”