• South Africa continues to report the highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the African continent. Inadequate access to personal protective equipment or weak infection prevention and control measures raise the risk of health worker infection.
• In East Africa, 92 per cent of working women are employed in the informal sector, heightening the risks they face of sexual exploitation and abuse due to economic vulnerability.
• Reports of gender-based violence have increased. However, service providers are not always being recognized as essential workers and women's organizations are underfunded.
• The COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan is just 23 per cent funded. More resources are urgently needed to enable partners to scale-up their response

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Key Figures

• 793,437 total cases in the region (as of 27 Aug)
• 17,270 total deaths
• 26 countries affected in the region

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).