Community perspectives on the COVID-19 response, Zimbabwe

Abstract

DISCLAIMER This paper was submitted to the Bulletin of the World Health Organization and was posted to the COVID-19 open site, according to the protocol for public health emergencies for international concern as described in Vasee Moorthy et al.

The impact of COVID-19 measures on children with disabilities and their families in Uganda

“…Barriers to the public's adherence to COVID-19 prevention measures were cited in some African countries, including religious and cultural beliefs and practices in Sudan (Hezima et al 2020) and South Africa (Jaja, Anyanwu, and Jaja 2020), poor health-seeking behaviour in Ethiopia (Shigute et al 2020), and general distrust of the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Whembolua and Tshiswaka 2020). In Zimbabwe, health workers mentioned implementing the measures is hard without access to water, long-term food supplies, and daily income (Mackworth-Young et al, 2020). The overwhelming and devastating economic effect that public health measures such as curfews, bans on transport and lock-downs have on populations that are largely dependent on the informal economic sector were highlighted in Zimbabwe (Dzobo, Chitungo, and Dzinamarira 2020) and Ethiopia (Shigute et al 2020).…”

Indigenous communities’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequences for maternal and neonatal health in remote Peruvian Amazon: a qualitative study based on routine programme supervision

“…Strict home isolation is therefore hardly feasible in the rural Amazon setting, in line with findings that nationwide home isolation policies in LMICs conflict with realities of daily life. 40 41 …”

Psychosocial Impacts of the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic in Zimbabwe: Citizens’ Perspective

“…However, despite the public acclamations made by the government that the country is well prepared to face the pandemic, analysts have red-flagged a number of capacity deficits (Chingono 2020;Mackworth-Young et al 2020). For example, Katsidzira, Gwaunza and Hakim (2020) aver that the country has a total of 650 readily available hospital beds for COVID-19 patients, and of these, only 20 beds can support critical care patients.…”

“…Literature Review Scholarly debates on the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and Zimbabwe in particular appear to be moving at a snail's pace (Mackworth-Young et al 2020). Inopportunely, this is happening against a backdrop of shrinking livelihood opportunities (due to a mandatory national lockdown, which closed off the national economy) (Dziva 2020; Price 2020) and disrupted traditional social support systems in compliance with social distancing and self-quarantining protocols as recommended by the WHO (Ahmed et al 2020;Guo et al 2020).…”

“…Additionally, in their investigations of the impacts of the various prevention strategies being used in curbing COVID-19 in Zimbabwe, Price (2020) and Mackworth-Young et al (2020) found that the lockdown as a prevention strategy was associated with deteriorating livelihoods, human rights abuses, and an escalation of domestic violence. Moreover, Karombo (2020) avers that many people in Zimbabwe survive on daily wages, hence mandatory closure of the national economy unequivocally deprive these people of their daily livelihoods as it negates their affordability of basic necessities including food, shelter, medication, and other essential services.…”