The first 100 days of the COVID-19 epidemic in Mali: a descriptive analysis

Abstract Background Since the detection of the first cases of COVID-19 in Mali, the ministry of health provides daily released of information and situation report including information on the number of testing, confirmed cases, case-contacts, recovered patients, COVID-19 related deaths; and the geographic locations affected by the epidemic. The objective of this study was to analyze this information and to examine the relation between the number of confirmed cases and the number of testing, case-contacts, recovered patients and COVID-19 related deaths. Method From the daily released of information and situation reports, the data related to the number of testing, confirmed cases, case-contacts, recovered patients, COVID-19 related deaths; and the affected geographic locations were extracted on an Excel file before being analyzed with SPSS 25 software. The analyses were essentially descriptive including Spearman correlation test and Chi 2 test for statistical significance (p≤0, 05).Results The analyses include 14,938 testing, 2,260 PCR confirmed cases, 12, 864 case-contacts, 1,502 recovered patients and 117 deaths reported during the first 100 days of the epidemic, particularly from March 25 to July 2, 2020. The results show low level of testing and demonstrate a positive correlation between the number of confirmed cases and the number of testing, case-contacts, recovered patients and deaths. These results suggest that Mali could have more confirmed cases by increasing testing, particularly among case-contacts.Conclusion The results can help to understand the evolution of the epidemic, call for more testing and contact tracing of COVID-19 cases. They can also contribute to improving data quality and response to COVID-19.