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The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Africa has reached 2,854,971 as of Tuesday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said.

The continental disease control and prevention agency said in a statement that the death toll from the pandemic had reached 67,986 as of Tuesday afternoon.

The Africa CDC, a specialized healthcare agency of the African Union (AU) Commission, also said that a total of 2,361,900 people infected with the virus have so far recovered.

The most affected African countries in terms of the number of positive cases include South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Ethiopia, figures from the Africa CDC showed.

South Africa has the highest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases at 1,113,349. The country also has the highest number of deaths from the disease at 30,011 according to the Africa CDC.

Last week, the AU Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat called on the African continent to ensure economic recovery from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic as the new year begins.

“As we mark the end of the year 2020, we also mark the end of one of the most extraordinary and challenging years in living memory,” the chairperson of the 55-member pan-African bloc said in a statement.

Mahamat warned that “the challenging task of protecting our health and livelihoods, while ensuring recovery of our economies, still lies ahead as we begin a new year”.

An Algerian supporter of the Hirak protest movement was sentenced to three years in jail Monday for satirical social media posts mocking the government and religion, a campaign group said.

Walid Kechida, 25, was accused of insulting President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and “offending the precepts” of Islam in internet memes and other online posts, said Kaci Tansaout, from the CNLD prisoners’ rights group.

“Walid Kechida is sadly sentenced to three years in prison with a fine,” Tansaout said, adding that lawyers would appeal. Lawyer Moumen Chadi confirmed the sentence.

The public prosecutor in Algeria’s northeastern Setif the province had called for a five-year sentence, and Kechida has already spent eight months in detention awaiting trial.

Algerian authorities have arrested and prosecuted several activists in a bid to stem the Hirak protesters.

The CNLD says over 90 people, including activists, social media users and journalists are currently in custody in connection with the country’s anti-government protest movement or individual liberties — mostly for dissenting social media posts.

Tebboune last week signed Algeria’s new constitution into law, a change the government hopes will turn the page on the long-running Hirak mass protest movement.

The Hirak first launched vast street demonstrations in early 2019 to oppose then-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s bid for a fifth term in office.

Following his resignation that April, the Hirak kept up the pressure to demand a full overhaul of the ruling system in place since the North African nation’s 1962 independence from France.

A November referendum to approve the constitutional changes received the backing of less than 15 percent of the electorate, in a vote overshadowed by the novel coronavirus pandemic and Hirak calls for a boycott.