The number of COVID-19-related deaths in Africa has surpassed the 70,000 mark while infections near three million, as the continent continues its fight to stop the spread of the virus.

According to the latest data from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 70,553 confirmed fatalities by Saturday afternoon, from a total of 2,950,109 infections reported.

South Africa accounts for the biggest number of both the continent's death toll and infections.

It's 1,192,570 confirmed cases account for 40.42 percent of Africa's cases, while its 32,425 deaths represent 45.96 percent of the continent's virus-related fatalities.

Morocco's 450,221 cases are the second-highest number of infections in Africa, and are accompanied by 7,685 deaths.

Other than the two, only five other African countries have recorded more than 100,000 COVID-19 infections; Tunisia (154,903), Egypt (147,810), Ethiopia (127,572), Libya (104,002) and Algeria (101,657).

The Africa CDC data also showed that by Saturday, some 2,414,219 patients had successfully recovered from COVID-19.