African continent hits 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases

The African continent has surpassed 2 million confirmed cases as health officials warn of infections starting to creep up again into a second surge.

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday that the continent had crossed that milestone.

Its numbers show the 54-country continent also has seen more than 48,000 deaths from COVID-19.

The African continent of 1.3 billion people is being warned against "prevention fatigue" as countries loosen pandemic restrictions to ease their economies' suffering and more people travel. The Africa CDC director this week openly worried that the level of mask-wearing has gone down and called that dangerous.

While the world takes hope from recent news about promising COVID-19 vaccines, African health officials also worry that the continent will suffer as richer countries buy up supplies.