African countries are closing in on 1.2 million coronavirus cases mark, according to an update by Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The centre tweeted that the cases are now at 1,196,710 with the deaths at 28, 014 and recoveries at 922, 833.

South Africa has the most cases at 611,450, followed by Egypt 97,478, Morocco 53,252, Nigeria 52,548, Ghana 43,622, Algeria 42,302, Ethiopia 42,143 and Kenya 32,803.

Southern Africa is the continent’s worst-hit region of the continent followed by northern Africa then the west. East and central Africa have recorded the least cases.

Africa CDC has been urging nations to be more aggressive in dealing with the pandemic, calling for more testing and contact tracing.

It recently launched an antibody testing drive to understand the magnitude of the virus infections in the continent.