In March 2020, the WHO declared COVID a pandemic. COVID cases rose, and the death toll increased. Tests were developed to quickly detect COVID cases. By 2020's end and early 2021, companies had developed vaccines to neutralise the virus. But that didn't stop the spread. It's 2022 and although the talk has fizzled, COVID is still out there. Since its inception, it has impacted more lives than we can imagine.
I explored COVID-19 data (February 2020 - 24th June 2022) from Our World in Data (OWID). I focused on Africa and asked:
- How is Africa fairing in comparison to other continents?
- Which African countries have the most cases, tests, deaths and vaccinations?
- How have cases, tests, deaths and vaccinations in Africa increased or decreased over time?
- In comparison with other continents, Africa isn't doing badly. As of June 24th 2022, Africa recorded approx. 12m cases, 255k deaths, 62m tests and 250m vaccinations.
- Since January 2022, cases, tests, deaths, and vaccines have declined.
- Egypt has the highest number of fully vaccinated people and has dispensed 15% of the continent's vaccinations (complete doses). South Africa is the country with the most COVID tests (24.81m, 40%), cases (3.97m, 33%), and deaths (101.39k, 40%) on the continent.
- Since South Africa has the most COVID tests it is likely that they will find more cases and track COVID-related deaths. Besides, there is a strong positive correlation (r = 0.94) between COVID cases and COVID tests and COVID deaths and COVID cases (r = 0.98). More tests lead to more cases, more cases lead to more deaths and vice versa.