OUTBREAK OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN AFRICA: AN OVERVIEW

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Africa’s most internationally connected population centers and Major business hubs were the first to detect covid-19 cases on the continent. These were mainly countries in the sub-Saharan and West-African region such as Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa.
The first confirmed case of covid-19 disease in Africa was detected in an asymptotic Chinese national in Cairo on the 14th of February, 2020. The second was in an Italian national in Algeria on the 25th February. At that time, statistical data based on air-travel models from china identified Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, and South-Africa as the countries at the highest risk of initial introductions and spread in Africa.
In the wake of the first detection of the virus, African countries had two major categories of action available to them which were strict border controls to step the entry of the virus by persons coming into the country from abroad, and the second option was domestic measures to stop or significantly impede the spread of the virus once it had been detected.
With varied success rates, Africa states implemented different measures within their domestic influence, for instance, as early as 27th January, Ivory Coast started, enforcing intensified surveyance at airport, screening all passengers with current history of travel to China. In turn, many African airlines shutdown direct flights to and from China. This approach initially paid off as the first Covid-19 case on the continent on 14th February was a person with travel history to China, promptly detected at airport. By the end of the first week of march, 2020, nine African countries Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, South-Africa and Tunisia were reporting over 40 cases. With most index cases originating in Europe which cases the Epicenter.
According data from the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), there are currently 3.5 million confirmed cases in Africa