The COVID-19 Pandemic in Francophone West Africa: From the First Cases to Responses in Seven Countries

Abstract

Background: In early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit West Africa. Countries in the region quickly set up crisis management committees and organised drastic measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The objective of this article is to analyse the epidemiological evolution of COVID-19 in seven Francophone West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal) as well as the public health measures decided upon during the first four months of the pandemic. Methods: Our method is based on quantitative and qualitative data from the pooling of information from a COVID-19 data platform and collected by a network of interdisciplinary collaborators present in the seven countries. Descriptive and spatial analyses of quantitative epidemiological data and content analyses of qualitative data on public measures and management committees were performed. Results: Attack rates for COVID-19 range from less than 10 per 100,000 inhabitants (Benin) to more than 45 per 100,000 inhabitants (Guinea). The spatio-temporal analysis shows three phases of incidence clusters. By the end of June 2020, case numbers had plateaued in some countries (Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali) while others continued to see the number of infections increasing (Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Senegal). The countries all reacted quickly to the crisis, in some cases before the first reported infection, and implemented public measures in a relatively homogeneous manner. None of the countries implemented country-wide lockdowns, but in some cases implemented partial or local containment measures. At the end of June 2020, countries began to lift certain restrictive measures, sometimes under pressure from the general population or from certain economic sectors. All the countries have adopted response plans and organized multiple crisis management committees, although their content and functioning have not always been transparent or easy to understand. Conclusion: Much research remains to be done in West Africa. It will be necessary to better understand the dynamics of the pandemic, which appears to be largely under control, as well as the effectiveness and implementation of the state responses, which have been rapidly formulated.

Acceptability of Government Measures Against Covid-19 Pandemic in Senegal: a Mixed Methods Study

“…The ght against Ebola in West Africa has also shown how central the issue of trust is in the acceptability of control strategies [43]. In Senegal, several of our respondents denounced a politicisation of the management of the pandemic, as seems to be the case in West Africa [5] and elsewhere [44,45]. The management of the HIV epidemic in Africa had also given rise to such analyses [46].…”

“…Denial of the pandemic was already noted by anthropological research at the beginning of the pandemic in these regions [62]. The great annual pilgrimage of Touba, bringing together more than four million people in October 2020 in these same regions, has not been cancelled (62) even though this region was one of the rst clusters of the pandemic [5]. Obviously, the economic stakes of these decisions cannot be denied in countries where the informal and agricultural sectors are very important.…”

“…The research took place in Senegal which is composed of 14 regions and 45 departments for an estimated total number of 16,705,608 inhabitants (of which 50.23% are women) according to the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD) in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in March 2020 with, between March 2 and October 1st 2020, an estimated attack rate of 94.75 per 100,000 people, a case fatality rate of 2.07, and 1177 PCR tests per 100,000 people carried out [5].…”

“…As we have seen, Senegal has been very reactive in introducing drastic measures quickly to counter the spread of the pandemic [5,25]. At the same time, however, some measures were only applied for a few weeks, less than two months.…”

“…Yet Africa was well prepared according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention [4]. Indeed, most African countries reacted very quickly to the announcement of the epidemic in China [5]and long before it was declared a pandemic by the WHO on March 11 2020. In Frenchspeaking West Africa, for example, several countries had prepared themselves even before the rst case occurred, and many closed their borders or organised screening very quickly [5].…”