Starting next week, seven African countries will begin administering coronavirus antibody tests as part of efforts to understand the extent of the outbreak on the continent.

The development was announced on Thursday by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention as the continent continues to see a surge in infections.

"Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco are the first set of countries that committed to it," Reuters quotes John Nkengasong, head of the Africa CDC.

Antibody tests have been administered before in other regions including the United States and parts of Europe as countries sought to better understand the disease.

According to Nkengasong, Africa has so far conducted 9.4 million coronavirus tests.

By Thursday afternoon, the continent had reported 1,073,788 infections with a death toll of 24,256.

In recent weeks, the continent has seen a steady spike in new infections but the rise is still slower than other regions.

South Africa remains to be the worst-hit country in Africa, having registered 568,919 infections and 11,010 deaths.

The figures represent nearly 53 percent of Africa's confirmed infections and 45.4 percent of the fatalities.

Other than South Africa, only Egypt (95,963), Nigeria (47,743) and Ghana (41,725) have reported more than 40,000 COVID-19 cases.