The COVID-19 pandemic in Eswatini was a part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Eswatini in March 2020.[2]
COVID-19 pandemic in Eswatini | |
---|---|
Disease | COVID-19 |
Virus strain | SARS-CoV-2 |
Location | Eswatini |
Arrival date | 14 March 2020 (4 years, 1 month, 1 week and 4 days) |
Confirmed cases | 75,191[1] (updated 25 April 2024) |
Deaths | 1,427[1] (updated 25 April 2024) |
On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) 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.[3][4]
The case fatality ratio for COVID-19 has been much lower than SARS of 2003,[5][6] but the transmission has been significantly greater, with a significant total death toll.[7][5] Model-based simulations for Eswatini suggest that the 95% confidence interval for the time-varying reproduction number R t was lower than 1.0 from August to October 2020.[8]