Browsing by Author "Ndiaye, L."

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    Key factors in the contingency plan for COVID-19 during the Magal celebration in 2020
    (ELSEVIER (Public Health), 2021-04-08) Diouf, M.; Gueye, L.; Ndiaye, L.
    The ‘Grand Magal’ of Touba (GMT) is a religious event that celebrates the departure into exile in Gabon on September 21, 1895, of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba. Every year, on the occasion of the ‘Grand Magal’, the holy city of Touba welcomes hundreds of thousands of Mouride faithful who come to commemorate this event. In 2019, Lô et al. report that 4.5 million people converged on Touba for the needs of the ‘Magal’.1 Researchers from the Alioune DIOP University of Bambey (Senegal)2 have reported that the socio-economic dynamics of this influx were very liveliy. The celebration of the 2020 edition of the GMT coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide and the pilgrims who converged on the religious city are estimated at more than four million. This letter to the editor presents the determinants on which the Epidemiological Alert and Prevention Unit relied to reduce the risks of transmission of COVID-19, before, during, and after the Touba ‘Grand Magal’. These determinants are essentially articulated around a triptych consisting of a dynamic and participatory prevention environment, an epidemiological surveillance and active monitoring system, and a generalized and contextualized community commitment.