There are so far few cases of Covid-19 in Benin and only two deaths. In Cotonou, patients are treated with hydroxychloroquine. (Source: Government of Benin)

Today, where are we in terms of cases tested, serious cases and deaths in Benin?

As of May 07, 2020, there have been 242 confirmed cases, 62 recovered and 02 deaths. (Source: Government of Benin)

Mortality remains low and so do cases in intensive care, compared to international statistics. We expected to have a few more cases. There's always this discussion: are they all listed? If there were really a very large number of contaminations that would go unnoticed, we would know immediately.

How to explain this?

There are several tracks. We have seen that BCG vaccine coverage in countries such as Italy and the United States is very low. In these countries, there are about 358 cases per million inhabitants. On the other hand, in the regions which are vaccinated, which are more the regions of the South, there are 38 cases per million inhabitants. Mortality drops from 40 to 4 per million inhabitants. We can ask ourselves the question in relation to this BCG (Source RFI)

On the other hand, the population is clearly younger. We know that contamination occurs mainly in homes, but we can also say that outside, on a ramp, on the ground, the virus survives less with UV rays. Perhaps this set of co-factors promotes having less transmission.

The restrictive measures ordered by the authorities who have put in place a system to isolate the populations have an effect, even if people still circulate a little during the day.

Have all these measures not resulted in this non-aggravation of the situation?

We must remain cautious, because we are behind in the epidemic compared to Europe and Asia in particular, we must wait for the next few weeks to better decide on this issue.