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. 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.