Coronavirus disease 2019 in Africa: why the recent spike in cases?

This chapter assesses the recent cases of COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. COVID-19, a global pandemic, is spreading so fast across all continents with African region not left out of its ravaging and devastating effects. Nigeria, on May 31, 2020, became the first country in West Africa to hit the 10,000 mark of confirmed COVID-19 cases. This recent spike in COVID-19 cases with accompanying increase in the number of fatalities calls for concern. As of July 21, 2020, Nigeria ranked third in Africa, just behind South Africa and Egypt, while the total number of confirmed cases in Africa has increased to 736,288. What would have led to the increasing cases in Africa? We found that poverty, hunger, people's violation of health guidelines, and increase in the number of laboratory tests for suspected COVID-19 cases are responsible for the sudden and sustained rise in cases in the continent.