Africa coronavirus cases top 100,000

Countries in northern Africa have the highest death tolls, led by Egypt (696 deaths from 15,003 cases) and Algeria (575 deaths from 7,728 cases)

Africa has now recorded more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus, according to an AFP tally drawn from official figures on Friday.

Across the continent, a total of 100,002 cases had been registered  Friday, of which 3,095 were fatal.

Countries in northern Africa have the highest death toll, led by Egypt ( 696 death from 15,003 cases ) and algeria (575 deaths from 7,728 cases).

South of the Sahara, the highest tolls have been in South Africa (397 deaths out of 20,125 cases) and Nigeria (211 deaths, 7,016 cases).

The continent-wide figure is far behind that of the United States, with 1,577,758 cases, 96,978 of them deaths, and Europe, with 1,974,501 cases and 171,011 deaths.

Experts warn that Africa's figures are likely to underestimate the true scale of the pandemic there, due to lack of testing capacity.

The World Health Organization, as it announced the 100,000 mark had been reached, said the virus had spread to every country in the continent since the first case was confirmed 14 weeks ago.