A country that somehow forgot about the Corona virus

Weather of Arabia - The main wing of the Corona virus in the desert capital, Niamey, has been empty for months, and dust has accumulated on the hastily erected isolation facilities piling up. There are almost no masks on the streets, many days go by without a single person contracting the coronavirus, there is so little demand for vaccines that the government has sent thousands of doses abroad... Welcome to Niger, the land that the coronavirus has somehow forgotten.

This vast West African country - home to one of the highest birthrates and poverty rates in the world - was once identified by the World Health Organization as one of the countries most vulnerable to a coronavirus outbreak on the continent.

More than a year later, many other countries across Africa are in the grip of the third wave of the pandemic, with new mutations raising the infection level to record levels.

But while Niger struggles with a host of economic and security challenges, it is among a small group of countries on the southern edge of the Sahara that have so far mostly escaped the coronavirus pandemic.

Experts say the reasons - which appear to include a hot, dry climate, sparsely populated and poorly contacted communities and the world's newest population - have made Niger a critical case study for virologists studying the evolution of Covid-19.

Doctors say the spread of the highly contagious delta species and the reopening of land borders in recent weeks continue to pose a threat to the largely vulnerable country and its health system. But in Niamey, the sleepy capital on the Niger River, there is little evidence of an outbreak in many other countries across the continent.