Addis Ababa, Jan 17 (IANS): The African continent's overall coronavirus caseload has surged to 3,207,639, according to health authorities.

In its latest update on Saturday, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said the Covid death toll stood at 77,684, with 2,617,110 recoveries, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Southern African region is the hardest-hit in terms of the number of cases, followed by the Northern African region, according to the Africa CDC.

The five highly-affected African countries are South Africa (1,311,686 cases), Morocco (457,625), Tunisia (175,065), Egypt (154,620), and Ethiopia (130,326).

South Africa is also the worst-affected country in terms of Covid-19 deaths, with 36,467 fatalities.

Amid the recent spike in the number of new Covid-19 cases, the continent has announced that Africa CDC's African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) had secured a provisional 270 million vaccine doses for member states.

"From the onset of this pandemic, our focus as a continent has been on collaboration and collective effort. We have held steadfastly to the principle that no country should be left behind," South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is also the Chairperson of the African Union (AU), was quoted as saying in a statement.

"With this in mind, we have not only campaigned vigorously for changes through all the available international forums, but we have taken the additional step to independently secure vaccines using our own limited resources as member states," he said.

At least 50 million doses from this tranche will be available during the crucial period of April through June.