AFRICA’S GOVERNANCE RESPONSE TO COVID-19 | PRELIMINARY REPORT 2020 The regional patterns of fatality rate are also important in examining the opportunities for improving multilateralism and international cooperation as key governance responses to Covid-19. Fatality rates present unique and varied political pressures to countries which may often translate into protectionism or nationalism. The average fatality rate for Africa as at 16th May 2020 was 3.32%. However, it is important to highlight that the fatality rate differs significantly between the regions and even more significantly between countries. Northern Africa remains the region with the highest fatality rate (5.29%), followed by Central Africa (3.68%). But Southern Africa registered the lowest Fatality Rate (1.82%), followed by West Africa (2.08%) (figure 5). The fatality rate is the total number of deaths as a percentage of the total number of confirmed cases at a given time in a geographical region or jurisdiction. Figure 5: COVID-19 Fatality Rates by Region of Africa 21