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During Epidemiological Week (Epiweek) 35, 29 countries in the WHO African region (WHO AFR) contributed virological data for analysis - Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. During week 35, 2,016 specimens were collected and 1,981 were tested for influenza.

In Epiweek 35, 279 specimens tested positive for influenza virus (positivity of 14.1%), of which 193 specimens were Influenza A, and 86 specimens were Influenza B. The following influenza viruses were identified: Influenza A (H1N1)pdm09 (n = 23), Influenza A (H3) (n = 134), Influenza A (subtyping not performed) (n = 36), Influenza B (lineage not determined) (n = 8), and Influenza B (Victoria) (n = 78).

SARS CoV-2

In Epiweek 35, of the 1,799 specimens processed by 23 laboratories in the African Region, a total of 60 specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (positivity of 3.3%).

Cumulatively from weeks 1 to 35, the WHO AFR influenza laboratory network has tested 59,148 sentinel surveillance specimens for SARS-CoV-2, of which 3,251 were positive for SARS-CoV-2 (cumulative positivity rate 5.5%).