COVID-19 pandemic in the Central African Republic


The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the Central African Republic in March 2020.

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. Model-based simulation for the Central African Republic indicate that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number has been stable above 1.0 since May 2020.
There are only three ventilators in the entire country.

Timeline

March 2020

The country's first case was announced on 14 March, with the patient being identified as a 74-year-old Italian man who returned to the Central African Republic from Milan, Italy.
There were six confirmed cases in March, with no recoveries and no deaths.

April 2020

In April there were 44 new cases, raising the total number of cases to 50. Ten patients recovered, leaving 40 active cases at the end of the month.

May 2020

On 23 May 2020, the first death in the country occurred.
There were 961 new cases in May, raising the total number of cases to 1011. The death toll was 2 while the number of recovered patients increased to 23, leaving 986 active cases at the end of May.

June 2020

In June there were 2734 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 3745. The death toll rose to 47. The number of recovered patients increased to 787, leaving 2911 active cases at the end of the month.