Africa: 12,400 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

With a drop of 2,684 in new daily cases, the African continent recorded a total of 12,463 additional coronavirus infections on Tuesday, Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said in an update.

The continent registered 15,147 new cases on Monday. The total infections reached 8.05 million, the center said, adding that the death toll hit 204,024.

Nearly 7.35 million patients in Africa have so far recuperated, while the continent has conducted tests on over 69.1 million people, it noted.

Of the five geographical regions, Southern Africa recorded 3.8 million cases, North Africa 4.2 million, East Africa 942,800, West Africa 627,900, and Central Africa 226,700.

The update said 144.5 million doses of vaccines have been supplied, with 111.3 million of them administered to date.

Remittances slashed by pandemic

Remittances to African countries were expected to decrease by 5.4% from $44 billion in 2020 to a projected total of $41 billion this year, due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN Economic Commission for Africa said in a press release Monday, citing findings of its Continental Migration Report 2021.

The report -- African regional review of implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration -- was produced by the Economic Commission for Africa in partnership with the African Union Commission, the release said.

“Although the COVID-19 pandemic was expected to lead to a decrease in remittances to Africa in 2020, findings of the report show that by October 2020 remittances to Africa had reached approximately $78.4 billion, constituting 11.7 per cent of global remittances. Remittances have therefore demonstrated greater resilience and reliability as a source of capital in Africa than foreign direct investment flows,” it said.

The report, according to the press release, recommended that governments across the world should take effective action to facilitate and boost remittances in view of supporting the fight against COVID-19 and ultimately building a more sustainable post-pandemic world.