Social distancing patterns in nine municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: the Epicovid19/RS study

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To describe social distancing practices in nine municipalities of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, stratified by gender, age, and educational attainment. METHODS: Two sequential cross-sectional studies were conducted in the municipalities of Canoas, Caxias do Sul, Ijuí, Passo Fundo, Pelotas, Porto Alegre, Santa Cruz do Sul, Santa Maria, and Uruguaiana to estimate the population prevalence of COVID-19. The study was designed to be representative of the urban population of these municipalities. A questionnaire including three questions about social distancing was also administered to the participants. Here, we present descriptive analyses of social distancing practices by subgroups and use chi-square tests for comparisons. RESULTS: In terms of degree of social distancing, 25.8% of the interviewees reported being essentially isolated and 41.1% reported being quite isolated. 20.1% of respondents reported staying at home all the time, while 44.5% left only for essential activities. More than half of households reported receiving no visits from non-residents. Adults aged 20 to 59 reported the least social distancing, while more than 80% of participants aged 60 years or older reported being essentially isolated or quite isolated. Women reported more stringent distancing than men. Groups with higher educational attainment reported going out for daily activities more frequently. CONCLUSIONS: The extremes of age are more protected by social distancing, but some groups remain highly exposed. This can be an important limiting factor in controlling progression of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mudanças nas condições socioeconômicas e de saúde dos brasileiros durante a pandemia de COVID-19

“…About the adherence to social restriction measures, it was possible to observe that approximately 75% of the participants did it, restricting contact with other people and only going out for essential activities. These findings corroborate the results from other national and international analyses, which show good adherence of the measures from a large portion of the population 13,14 ; the impact of social restriction on the reduction of transmission rates of the new coronavirus was visible 4,[15][16][17] . The presentation of flu symptoms during the pandemic was reported by more than one fourth of individuals aged 18 years or more who answered the survey; however, among them, the proportion of people who were tested to know if they were infected by the new coronavirus was only 5.9%.…”

The COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) uncertainty tripod in Brazil: Assessments on model-based predictions with large under-reporting

“…For these reasons, the scientific community has been warning for a possibly huge margin of underestimated cases in Brazil [47] , [42] , [12] . Some studies, such as [4] , point out to the presence of over of under-reported cases. Furthermore, the daily reports (“datasets”) disclosed by the Brazilian Ministry of Health 4 , only give an impression of the virus contagion in the past, since, on average, a person exhibits acute symptoms only 20 days of the moment of infection.…”

Insufficient social distancing may contribute to COVID-19 outbreak: The case of Ijuí city in Brazil

“…Partial economic lockdown was implemented before the tenth confirmed case of COVID-19 by 18 (67%) states and before the first death from COVID-19 by 24 (89%) of the states [ 33 ]. In April 2020, of nine major cities in Rio Grande do Sul, the biggest cities (Porto Alegre and Santa Maria) exhibited the highest degree of social distancing, while Ijuí had a less favorable pattern, with a strikingly higher percentage reported being “out of the house all day” [ 25 ].…”