Evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic over six weeks in four French-speaking countries in West Africa

The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19; caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2) is severely challenging health systems worldwide. In Africa, the first case of COVID-19 was reported by Egypt on February 15, 2020, after which the pandemic spread to all countries on the continent with 46 829 positive cases as of May 12, 2020 [1]. Countries are experiencing different trajectories of disease progression, with obvious differences in the epidemiological surveillance indicators between countries. Here, we describe the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso over the first six weeks and discuss the factors that might explain differences in the disease progression.