Flare-up of Covid-19 contamination in Côte d'Ivoire

Text by: Pierre Pinto Follow

This Wednesday, May 13, Côte d'Ivoire recorded 55 new cases and three new deaths due to Covid-19 bringing the total to 1912 including 23 dead. On Tuesday, the country had experienced an unprecedented increase in contamination: +127 people tested postive. New announcements on restrictions in Greater Abidjan, isolated from the rest of the country, are expected on Thursday.

Publicity

From our correspondent in Abidjan

If this Wednesday's "positivity rate" seems more in line with usual statistics (9.3%), Tuesday's figures (+127 cases out of 506 samples taken, ie 25% positive) raised concerns.

Never since the start of the CIV epidemic has the positivity rate been so high. It usually hovered around 10%. Even if it is too early to draw conclusions, Dr. Edith Kouassi, of the Ministry of Health, put forward a possible explanation, namely: "the reinforcement of screening capacities with the six proximity sites and the strong awareness populations, especially those with suggestive signs. "

Clearly, people who think they have symptoms are more likely to come and be tested at sites deployed in the communes of Abidjan. An affluence which also has for explanation the announcement last Friday of a new measure: to present a negative test result to obtain an authorization to leave Abidjan. This measure was finally lifted on Wednesday.

Since May 8, the interior of the country, where officially no cases have been recorded in the past three weeks, has seen restrictions relaxed. Greater Abidjan, still isolated from the rest of the country, has seen its curfew reduced. Other measures are to be announced on Thursday, which will take effect tomorrow Friday.

Our selection on the coronavirus

• Listen to our daily chronicle  Coronavirus info

• The practical questions  :
→  What is known about the mode of contagion
→  disparities and inequalities in coronaviruses: what to remember
→  What outcomes for clinical trials?
→  A vaccine, the only solution to stem the pandemic?
→  How to make a mask and use it well

• Our series  : "  The response, country by country  "

• Each evening, find the State of the world and Africa facing the pandemic

• See also the files of RFI Savoirs on the Covid-19:
→  Birth of a pandemic
→  Everyday life put to the test
→  The history of epidemics
→  Science facing the Covid-19
→  The geopolitical consequences

Newsletter Receive all international news directly in your mailbox

Follow all international news by downloading the RFI application

• Ivory Coast
• Coronavirus
• Africa

On the same subject

Coronavirus control in Ivory Coast: screening at the heart of the strategy

Ivory Coast: relaxation of measures against coronavirus in the provinces