New Delhi (NVI): With the African continent witnessing a constant surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, South Africa now ranks fifth in the world, ahead of Peru for confirmed coronavirus caseload.
The African nation has reported 13,285 new confirmed cases with the overall tally at 3,50,879. With this, the country now has roughly half the number of cases in Africa.
Other countries with the most cases are the US, Brazil, India and Russia.
Although the virus arrives in Africa a little later than other countries, giving health officials more time to prepare, lack of health infrastructure and testing facilities makes it difficult for the continent to manage the sudden surge of cases. Even the hospitals in South Africa are having a tough time handling the growing number of cases.
Pretoria’s Gauteng province has emerged as the epicentre for the virus. The province has one-quarter of the country’s population and many of the poor are crowded in township areas with inadequate access to clean water and sanitation.
South Africa now has over 3,51,000 cofirmed cases with 4,948 deaths. Around 1,82,000 patients have already recovered from the deadly virus in the country.
Meanwhile, over 14 million people have been infected with the virus globally, while 6,02,656 have died.
-ARK
