COVID-19 pandemic in Western Sahara


The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Western Sahara in April 2020. There are only cases in the disputed Western Sahara territory controlled by Morocco. There are no confirmed cases in the rest of Western Sahara controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

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.

Timeline

On 4 April, the first four cases were confirmed in Boujdour by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara.
On 9 April, MINURSO reported that two new cases were confirmed in Dakhla, bringing the number of confirmed cases to six.