The information was advanced by John Nkengasong, director of the Africa CDC during the weekly press conference on the stage of the disease in the region.

John Nkengasong said he reported that the African continent has recorded 1,322 new deaths in recent weeks, a number that is down from 1,515 deaths recorded in the inner week. "That means a decrease of 15%, on average, of new deaths," he pointed out, quoted by the Lusa news agency.

The head of the Africa CDC reported a decrease of 20% on the continent, but pointed out that "the numbers are not homogeneous, with an increase of 7% recorded in Central Africa.

As far as vaccines are concerned, the director was encouraged by the acceleration in the distribution of doses, but regretted the low number of people vaccinated on the continent.

In this regard, he said that so far "we have 5.5% of total people fully vaccinated, that is, with two doses in case two doses are required, or one dose in the case of Johnson & Johnson."

He revealed at the same conference that the total number of Johnson & Johnson doses delivered to African countries through AVATT stands at 11.5 million.

According to the Africa CDC, the cumulative total of infection cases on the continent since the start of the pandemic is now 8,483,555 and the number of recovered cases is 7,881,834, up 12,974 in the last 24 hours.