ADDIS ABABA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Some 53 African countries have conducted 104,461,106 COVID-19 tests so far, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said in the latest weekly briefing held Thursday.

       The Africa CDC, the specialized healthcare agency of the African Union, said 507,350 new tests were reported during the past one week.

       This is a 23 percent decrease from the previous week when 659,177 tests were reported.

       "The cumulative positivity rate is 11 percent and the test per case ratio is 9.2 percent," according to the agency.

       Five countries, namely South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt account for about 60 percent of all COVID-19 cases reported in Africa.

       As of Thursday morning, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Africa had reached 11,386,362 with 251,846 deaths and 10,756,607 recoveries, according to the agency.

       In terms of the caseload, southern Africa is the most affected region, followed by the northern and eastern parts of the continent, while central Africa is the least affected region in the continent, according to the Africa CDC.