Ethiopia sees 80% spike in COVID-19 cases

Rise in number of infected people attributed to testing campaign launched 12 days ago

Ethiopia on Wednesday announced an 80% increase in the number of people confirmed positive for coronavirus over the past 12 hours.

With the new figures, COVID-19 cases in Ethiopia to date hit 32,700 with 572 deaths and 12,900 recoveries. Health Minister Lia Tadesse attributed the rise in the number of cases in the Horn of Africa nation to an ongoing testing campaign aiming to do 200,000 laboratory tests. Since the launch of the campaign 12 days ago, the country has managed to test over 182,000 samples. “The campaign isn't over yet,” she said. According to the latest update by the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, based in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia now tops the list of 12 East African nations in terms of COVID-19 cases. Africa so far recorded 1.14 million cases, 26,329 deaths, and 860,662 recoveries.