ABUJA, Nigeria

South Africa registered 5,163 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the country’s total number of infections to 866,127, the Health Ministry said Monday. 

A total of 175 people have died from COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 23,451, while 762,746 of those infected have recovered.

The total number of tests conducted so far is 5,884,227.

Africa has reported more than 2.40 million COVID-19 cases so far.

Since first emerging in Wuhan, China in December last year, COVID-19 has claimed more than 1.61 million lives in 191 countries and regions.

More than 72.6 million cases have been reported worldwide, with over 47.44 million recoveries, according to figures compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.

While the US, India and Brazil remain the worst-hit countries in terms of the number of cases, Europe is in the grip of a devastating second wave of infections.

*Writing by Merve Berker