ISSN 2326-7291
International Journal of Public Health and Epidemiology ISSN: 2326-7291 Vol. 10 (8), pp. 001-016, August, 2021. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
A study of COVID-19 data from African countries
K´et´evi A. Assamagan1*, Somi´ealo Azote2*, Simon H. Connell3, Cyrille E. Haliya4, Toivo S. Mabote5, Kondwani C.C. Mwale6, Ebode F. Onyie7, George Zimba8
1Brookhaven National Laboratory, Physics Department, Upton, New York, USA.
2Universit´e de Lom´e, D´epartement de Physique, Lom´e, Togo.
3University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
4University of Abomey-Calavi, International Chair in Mathematical Physics and Applications, Cotonou, Benin.
5Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Grupo de Astrof´ısica e Ciˆencias Espaciais, Maputo, Mozambique.
6University of Rwanda, African Center of Excellence for Innovative Teaching and Learning Mathematics and Science, Kigali, Rwanda.
7University of Yaounde I, Department of Physics, Yaounde, Cameroon.
8University of Jyva¨skyla¨, Department of Physics, Jyva¨skyla¨, Finland.
Accepted 25 August, 2021
Abstract
COVID-19 is a new pandemic disease that is affecting almost every country with a negative impact on social life and economic activities. The number of infected and deceased patients continues to increase globally. Mathematical models can help in developing better strategies to contain a pandemic. Considering multiple measures taken by African governments and challenging socio-economic factors, simple models cannot fit the data. We studied the dynamical evolution of COVID-19 in selected African countries. We estimated a time-dependent reproduction number, R0 for each country studied to offer further insights into the spread of COVID-19 in Africa. We found that at the beginning the pandemic, R0 ≤ 4 for all the countries studied; three months later, R0 ∼ 1 with fluctuations in-between.
Keywords: COVID-19, SIDARTHE, SARS-CoV-2.