COVID – 19 Pandemic in Malawi

Abstract

On 20th of March, 2021 the Malawian President, Peter Mutharika, declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) a national disaster in Malawi, although the country had not registered any cases at the time. Malawi recorded its first three cases of COVID-19 on 2nd April 2020. The disease proceeded to affect more than 5704 people and more than 178 deaths reported by September 10th 2020. Many questions arise while comparing the COVID-19 epidemic in Malawi to other countries like the European Union Countries and China.
Malawi was faced with so many challenges in controlling this pandemic such as poverty, low literacy levels, environmental and hygienic conditions as well as nutrition. Despite all these factors, the outbreak of COVID-19 in Malawi was slower than many developing and developed countries. According to many scholars, the youthful population, hot weather, population immune system and humid conditions were factors that favoured the reduced effect of COVID-19 in Malawi. In this paper, we discuss the outbreak of COVID-19, comparing to China and the economics of Malawi and government reliefs.

Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, Malawi, Pandemic