COVID-19 cases top 200,000 in Ethiopia

ADDIS ABABA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia registered 1,769 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the nationwide tally to 200,563 as of Sunday evening, the country's Ministry of Health said.

Meanwhile, 17 new deaths from the virus were reported across the country, bringing the national death toll to 2,801, said the ministry.

The East African country reported 1,087 more recoveries, raising the national count to 154,323.

The East African country has so far conducted 2,332,735 COVID-19 medical tests, according to the ministry.

Figures from the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) show that Ethiopia's COVID-19 cases account for about 5 percent of Africa's total.

Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous nation, is one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19 in the continent, after South Africa, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt, according to the Africa CDC.

The Ethiopian government has been urging the public to implement COVID-19 precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus.

The Ethiopia Federal Attorney General Office announced Saturday that a legal directive has been enacted to impose up to three years of imprisonment on those who fail to adhere to COVID-19 health precautions.