South Africa assumed the chairmanship of the African Union at its 33rd annual summit in Addis Ababa in February, taking over from Egypt.

The two ministers reviewed a number of key issues of regional concern in light of the coronavirus pandemic running rampant on the African continent, Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Ahmed Hafez, said.

The two sides agreed on the importance of co-ordinating and rallying all efforts to address the consequences of the coronavirus at a continental level.

They also touched on means of strengthening ties between the two nations.

South Africa and Egypt have the highest numbers of coronavirus cases in Africa to date.

South Africa reported 7,808 confirmed cases on Wednesday evening, with 153 coronavirus-related deaths. It also reported 3,153 recoveries. It has conducted 279,379 tests so far.

In the latest numbers coming out of Egypt, the Egyptian health ministry announced that 7,588 people have contracted the virus, with 469 deaths – the second-highest number of deaths on the continent after Algeria’s 476 deaths, according to real-time tracker Worldometer.

Egypt has only managed to test 90,000 people to date.

African Union chairperson and President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a virtual meeting with AU regional executive community chairpersons last week that he was concerned about the impact that the coronavirus would have on African societies, economies and public health systems.

African News Agency (ANA)