The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the African continent reached 908,931 on Friday, 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 Friday, said that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases across the continent rose from 891,199 on Thursday to 908,931 as of Friday registering 17, 732 new positive cases during the stated period.

The Africa CDC report also said that the number of deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic rose to 19,310 as of Friday, up from 18,884 on Thursday.

The continental disease control and prevention agency also stressed that some 556, 695 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered across the continent so far.

South Africa, which has so far reported 482, 169 confirmed COVID-19 positive cases, is Africa's highest affected country in terms of positive cases, followed by Egypt, Nigeria, Algeria and Morocco, it was noted.

The Southern Africa region is the most affected area in terms of confirmed cases, followed by Northern Africa and Western Africa regions, respectively, the Africa CDC said.

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.