Clinical management and mortality among COVID-19 cases in sub-Saharan Africa: A retrospective study from Burkina Faso and simulated case analysis

•Countries within the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region may experience high COVID-19 case fatality rates.•Over the first months of the epidemic in SSA, deceased cases have tended to mainly be male, aged >50 years and have underlying comorbidities.•Delayed or no care-seeking was prevalent among deceased COVID-19 cases in Burkina Faso.•Analysis on a synthetic case population suggested that treatment with oxygen therapy or convalescent plasma reduced the adjusted odds of COVID-19 mortality.•Low-cost, scalable and sustainable strategies for COVID-19 case management in the SSA context warrant attention and investment to reduce disparity in case fatality.