Tunisia on Friday extended a statewide lockdown by 14 days in a bid to curb further spread of the disease, though the government is yet to announced the extension period.

This is the second extension of the lockdown which began on March 22.

Tunisia is one of 54 African countries that have recorded cases of COVID-19. The North African country has reported over 800 cases and 37 deaths.

In total, Africa has reported over 19,000 COVID-19 cases and more than 1,000 deaths.

The World Health Organziation (WHO) earlier this week warned that Africa risked being the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom said that "it's likely the real numbers are higher than reported," because of the continent's challenge of obtaining testing kits.

Tunisia's lockdown stipulates that all citizens remain indoors except those in vital sectors including health, security, energy, food, media, administration, justice, water and communications.