The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent reached 891,199 on Thursday, the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the 55-member African Union (AU) Commission in its latest situation update issued on Thursday, said that the number of deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 18, 884 as of Thursday, up from 18,507 on Wednesday.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also stressed that some 540,872 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far.

South Africa, which has so far reported 471,123 confirmed COVID-19 positive cases, is Africa's most affected country in terms of positive cases, followed by Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco, it was noted.

Amid the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across the African continent, the Africa CDC on Tuesday said 34 African countries are under "full border closure" in an effort to halt the spread of the infectious virus.