Addis Ababa, May 21 (IANS): The number of confirmed COVID-19 positive cases across Africa rose from 88,172 on Tuesday to 91,598 as of Wednesday afternoon, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Wednesday.

The Africa CDC, specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union, in its latest situation update issued on Wednesday said the death toll due to the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent surged from 2,835 on Tuesday afternoon to 2,912 as of Wednesday afternoon, Xinhua reported.

The Africa CDC also disclosed that some 35,808 people who had been infected with the COVID-19 had recovered across the continent as of Wednesday afternoon, registering some 2,002 new recoveries during the past 24-hours period.

Figures from the Africa CDC also show that amid the rapid spread of the virus across the continent, the highly COVID-19 affected African countries include South Africa with 17,200 confirmed cases, Egypt with 13,484 confirmed cases, Algeria with 7,377 confirmed cases, as well as Morocco with 7,023 confirmed cases.

The Africa CDC currently estimates the fatality rate of COVID-19 to be around 3.4 percent of all cases in the continent.