Covid-19: with 533 patients, Côte d'Ivoire becomes the epicenter of the pandemic in West Africa

This is really not a list of achievements to be honored, and it is good to draw everyone's attention to it so that everyone feels challenged at their level. Côte d'Ivoire, a month after discovering its first case of the contaminated virus, on March 11, has just taken the lead in the countries most affected by the coronavirus in West Africa.

While Senegal and Burkina Faso led the pack, Ivorians today record 533 cases of people with covid-19, including 58 cured and 4 deaths.


With this number, Côte d'Ivoire supplants Burkina Faso, which has 484 confirmed cases, 155 of which have been cured and 27 who died on this Saturday, April 11, 2020. While Senegal, one of the first countries hit by the pandemic in the Uemoa zone, maintains its number of positive screened persons at 278, including 152 cured, 2 deaths and above all a drop in the rate of contamination.

Neighboring Ghana, with more than 300 cases, is in 3rd position among the most affected countries, while Nigeria and its almost 200 million inhabitants is struggling to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

This arithmetic evolution of the contamination curve in Côte d'Ivoire confirms the laxity and indiscipline shown by part of the population at the outset, in the implementation of the first barrier measures taken to avoid the spread of the pandemic. `

Today, the position of the most affected country in the sub-region does not honor the Ivorian state. On the contrary, it is a bad blow for the first economy of Uemoa and this flagship country of the Cedeao area. Ivory Coast is blacklisted in terms of health security. A bad reputation which could impact its frequentability once the containment measures are being lifted in the world.

This situation calls for maintaining, or even redoubling, vigilance in control over the implementation of barrier measures until the reversal of the ever increasing curve. Which, for the moment, makes Ivorian territory the epicenter of the pandemic in West Africa. An image of which the Ivorians cannot be proud after having delivered to the world the shameful spectacle, a few weeks ago, of a people who gave the appearance of defying the deadly virus imported from China.