London, July 9, 2020 (AltAfrica)-Africa now has more than a half-million confirmed coronavirus-covid-19 cases, while South Africa’s health minister declared Wednesday that “we have now reached the surge.”

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The continent-wide total is over 509,000, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention after South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases as a new global hot spot. The country makes up 43% of Africa’s cases.

Egypt, the second most affected country on the continent reported another 1,025 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total infection tally to 78,304 since the outbreak began in February.

The health ministry also reported 75 new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 3,564.

The ministry said that 523 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 22,241.

During a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Health Minister Hala Zayed said that 10,518 coronavirus cases were detected between 23 and 29 June, and that this figure has dropped to 8,404 cases detected between 30 June and 6 July.

Nigeria, another high coronavirus afflicted country on Wednesday recorded 460 new cases pushing the country’s total caseload past the 30,000-mark.

According to Nigeria Centre for Disease Control the number of total infections in the country now stands at 30,249; while 684 persons have died as a result of the virus, 12,373 have been successfully treated and discharged.

As usual, Lagos reported the highest number of cases among the states with 150 while Rivers recorded 49.

The true number of cases among Africa’s 1.3 billion people is unknown as its 54 countries face a serious shortage of testing materials for the virus. “A tremendous problem, a real crisis of access,” the World Health Organization’s Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti, said last week.

So far most testing has been concentrated in capital cities, but infections in many cases have spread beyond them.