Ethiopia confirmed more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases with 16 deaths

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia

The Ethiopian Ministry of Health on Thursday reported 1,086 new confirmed COVID-19 cases pushing its countrywide total to 26,204 cases.

This figure represents an increase of 15 percent from the figure reported on Wednesday (943). Ethiopia has reported more than 550 cases every day for the last one week.

The ministry also reported 16 additional deaths from the disease taking the nationwide tally to 479. The number of recoveries also rose to 11,428 after 394 new recoveries were recorded.

Ethiopia has so far tested just over 550,000 people and currently has just over 14,000 active cases.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that the government will launch a nationwide month long testing campaign which which will determine the next steps it will undertake.

In the Eastern Africa region, Ethiopia is only second to Kenya (28,754) in terms of the number of confirmed cases. However, Ethiopia has registered slightly more deaths than Kenya, which has so far reported 460.