COVID-19 pandemic in Niger


The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Niger in March 2020. Amnesty International reported that journalists have been arrested over reporting about the pandemic.

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.

Timeline

March 2020

On 19 March, the first case in the country was confirmed in Niamey, being a 36-year-old man from Nigeria. He had travelled to Lomé, Accra, Abidjan, and Ouagadougou.
Following this announcement, the airports in Niamey and Zinder were closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
A third case was confirmed to be a Brazilian woman who entered the country on 16 March.
Niger reported a total of seven cases on March 25, including the first death related to COVID-19 in the country on 24 March. The death occurred in Niamey, being a 63-year-old Nigerian national.
There were 34 confirmed cases and 3 deaths in March, leaving 31 active cases at the end of the month.

April 2020

Model-based simulations indicate that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number R t exceeded 1.0 until mid-April but has been below 1.0 since then.
In April there were 685 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 719. The death toll rose by 29 to 32. There were 452 recoveries during the month, leaving 235 active cases at the end of the month.

May 2020

During May, there were 239 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 958. The death toll doubled to 64. There were 387 more recoveries in May, raising the number of recovered patients to 839. At the end of the month there were 55 active cases.

June 2020

There were 117 new cases in June, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1075. The death toll rose by three to 67. There were 284 more recoveries in June, raising the number of recovered patients to 943. At the end of the month there were 65 active cases, an increase by 20% from the end of May.

July 2020

There were 61 new cases in July, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 1136. The death toll rose by two to 69. There were 85 more recoveries in July, raising the total number of recovered patients to 1028. At the end of the month there were 39 active cases, a decrease by 40% from the previous month.