Exploring national COVID-19 variability across sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

Background: In early March 2020, coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Since its emergence and global spread, the pandemic has been one of the greatest global crises in modern human history. Notably, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), COVID-19-related burden and outcomes have been generally lower than many other parts of the world and substantially better than were initially feared. At the same time, there has been great heterogeneity in COVID-19 burden and outcomes between countries in the region, with some reporting particularly high incidence and death figures compared to others. What accounts for the significant cross-country variability apparent in SSA and why have some countries performed better than others? The present study investigates country-specific factors that may help to explain differences in COVID-19 outcomes across 48 countries in SSA.