The number of COVID-19 infections in Africa reached 8,295,563 on Wednesday even as many countries on the continent experience a decline in new cases.

As of Wednesday, data published by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) showed that the continent had conducted 74,877,206 tests since the virus arrived.

So far, 210,648 virus-related fatalities have been registered.

South Africa remains to be the hardest-hit country by the pandemic on the continent, having recorded 2,898,888 infections with 87,417 fatalities.

Besides South Africa, two more countries have registered more than 500,000 COVID-19 cases; Morocco (930,891) and Tunisia (706,314).

Countries on the continent have rolled out mass vaccination campaigns in efforts to contain further spread of the virus.

The continent still lags behind other regions in vaccination numbers, but a recent increase in arrival of doses has ignited hope that vaccine uptake will improve.

The Africa CDC data also showed that 7,623,245 people had recovered from the disease by Wednesday.