AFRICA’S GOVERNANCE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 | PRELIMINARY REPORT 2020 1.1 North Africa The first case of coronavirus in Africa was detected in Egypt in February 2020. The virus thereafter detected and reported in Algeria and other countries in the region, and later detected in the rest of Africa. As of 16th May 2020, the number of confirmed cases per country, in North Africa is presented in figure 6. Figure 6: COVID-19 Infection Cases in North Africa Egypt remains the country with the highest number of confirmed cases (11,719) and deaths (612), followed by Algeria with (6821) confirmed cases and (542) deaths associated with the virus. More people are recovering from the virus in Morocco (3,487) than Algeria (3409) and Egypt (2,950) (see Table 1 in Annex 1). The fatality rate in North Africa indicates huge differences across the states in the region (Figure 7). Mauritania has the highest fatality rate (10%) followed by Algeria (7.95%) and Egypt (5.22%). Figure 7: COVID-19 Fatality Rate in North Africa Source: APRM, May 2020 22