The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the ECOWAS region.

Objective: to analyse the pandemic after one year in terms of the evolution of morbidity and mortality and factors that may contribute to this evolution.

Design: This is a secondary analysis of data gathered to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of cases, incidence rate, cumulative incidence rate, number of deaths, case fatality rate and their trends were analysed during the first year of the pandemic. Testing and other public health measures were also described according to the information available.

Settings: The 15 States members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) were considered.

Results: As of 31st March 2021, the ECOWAS region reported 429,760 COVID-19 cases and 5,620 deaths. In the first year, 1,110.75 persons were infected per million, while 1.31% of the confirmed patients died. The ECOWAS region represents 30% of the African population. One year after the start of COVID-19 in ECOWAS, this region reported 10% of the cases and 10% of the deaths in the continent. Cumulatively, the region has had two major epidemic waves; however, countries show different patterns. The case fatality rate presented a fast growth in the first months and then decreased to a plateau.

Conclusion: We learn that the context of COVID-19 is specific to each country. This analysis shows the importance of better understanding each country's response. During this first year of the pandemic, the problem of variants of concern and the vaccination were not posed.

Funding: The study was funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) under CATALYSE project.