(Xinhua) – The Ethiopian Ministry of Health on Monday announced that the country’s total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases hit 85,136. In the past 24 hours, 841 new cases were reported.
According to the ministry, the new cases were discovered out of 5,997 COVID-19 medical tests.
Ethiopia had conducted 1,356,630 COVID-19 medical tests, it was reported.
The ministry also disclosed that the number of COVID-19 related deaths in the country reached 1,301 as of Monday after 14 new COVID-19 related deaths were reported during the last 24-hour period.
The ministry said that some 38,904 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had recovered so far, including 588 in the last 24-hour period.
According to the ministry, a total of 44,929 COVID-19 patients are still undergoing medical treatment, including 230 in severe condition.
Ethiopia confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 13.
Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation with about 107 million people, has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the East African region. And it is the fourth most COVID-19 affected country in the African continent, only surpassed by South Africa, Morocco and Egypt.
According to figures from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Ethiopia is one of the six African countries that account for approximately 90 percent of the new COVID-19 cases reported since the last week.
The six African countries include Morocco reporting 29 percent of the new cases, South Africa accounting 20 percent, Tunisia accounting 20 percent, Ethiopia accounting 10 percent, Libya accounting 8 percent, and Kenya accounting 2 percent.
As of Monday afternoon, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across the African continent has reached 1,577,644, and the number of deaths due to illnesses related to the pandemic reached 38,396.
The Africa CDC said the number of people who have recovered from the infectious virus across the continent has reached 1,304,622 so far.
