COVID-19 pandemic in Chad


The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Chad in March 2020.

Background

On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003, but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll. Model-based simulations for Chad indicate that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number R t for Chad has been stable below 1.0 since April.

Timeline

March

On 19 March, Chadian authorities reported their first case, a Moroccan passenger who flew from Douala.
On 26 March, with three cases already reported, Chadian authorities reported two additional positive cases. The cases were a 48-year-old Chadian and a 55-year-old Cameroonian passenger on a 17 March Ethiopian Airlines flight from Dubai and Brussels, respectively, via Addis Ababa.
On 30 March, two more cases of COVID-19 were reported, a Chadian citizen from Douala and a Swiss citizen from Brussels.
In total in March, 7 cases were confirmed with no deaths. As there were no recoveries in March, the number of active cases at the end of the month was 7.

April

On 2 April, Chad registered a new case of COVID-19, a Chadian who traveled from Dubai via Abuja.
On 3 April, a new case of COVID-19 was registered, a French citizen who traveled from Brussels via Paris.
On 6 April, Chad recorded its first case of local contamination, a 31-year-old Chadian who was in contact with another Chadian who had diagnosed positive.
On 9 April, health officials reported a new case of virus infection, a 59-year-old Chadian who arrived on March 25 in N'Djamena. The man was returning from Pakistan, via Cameroon, having reached N'Djamena by land. The man continued his journey to Abéché where he was finally quarantined on 4 April. The test was declared positive on 8 April.
During April there were 66 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 73. Two deaths were reported on 28 April and three more on 30 April, bringing the total death toll to five. 33 patients recovered, leaving 35 active cases at the end of the month.

May

In May there were 705 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 778. The death toll rose to 65. There were 458 new recoveries, raising the total number of recovered patients to 491. At the end of the month there were 222 patients representing active cases.

June

During June there were 88 new cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 866. The death toll rose by 9 to 74. There were 290 more recoveries, bringing the total number of recovered patients to 781. At the end of June there were 11 active cases.

July

There were 70 new cases in July, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 936. The death toll rose to 75. The number of recovered patients increased by 32 to 813, leaving 48 active cases at the end of the month.

Response

As a preventive measure, the government cancelled all flights into the country, except for cargo flights.