The number of COVID-19 infections in Africa reached 8,993,087 on Wednesday as more countries on the continent continue to report cases of the Omicron variant.

Data published by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the continent had also recorded 225,661 virus-related fatalities.

The Omicron COVID-19 variant, first reported by South Africa on November 24, continues to spread across the continent despite various national containment efforts.

On Wednesday, Kenya and Rwanda became the latest countries to report cases of the strain, joining nearly 80 other countries globally.

South Africa remains to be the hardest-hit country by the pandemic in Africa, having reported 3,204,642 infections with 90,172 fatalities.

The country accounts for 35.63 percent of Africa's infections and 39.96 percent of its deaths.

African countries have rolled out mass vaccination drives in efforts to contain further spread of the virus.

The vaccinations have been picking up in recent months, having initially moved very slowly due to a slow arrival of the life-saving doses.

As of Monday, only 20 African countries had vaccinated at least 10 percent of their population—the global target set by the World Health Organization (WHO) for September 2021.

Only six countries have hit the year-end target of fully vaccinating 40 percent of their population, while only two countries—Mauritius and Seychelles—have reached the 70 percent coverage seen as essential for controlling the pandemic.

The WHO estimates that at the current pace, it will take until May of 2022 before Africa reaches 40 percent coverage and August of 2024 before it reaches the 70 percent mark.