Lockdown Measures in Response to COVID-19 in Nine Sub-Saharan African Countries
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMJ
Abstract
Lockdown measures have been introduced worldwide to
contain the transmission of COVID-19. However, the term
‘lockdown’ is not well-defined.
Indeed, WHO’s reference
to ‘so-called
lockdown measures’ indicates the absence
of a clear and universally accepted definition of the
term ‘lockdown’. We propose a definition of ‘lockdown’
based on a two-by-
two
matrix that categorises different
communicable disease measures based on whether
they are compulsory or voluntary; and whether they are
targeted at identifiable individuals or facilities, or whether
they are applied indiscriminately to a general population
or area. Using this definition, we describe the design,
timing and implementation of lockdown measures in nine
countries in sub-Saharan
Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, South
Africa, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
and Zimbabwe. While there were some commonalities in
the implementation of lockdown across these countries,
a more notable finding was the variation in the design,
timing and implementation of lockdown measures. We
also found that the number of reported cases is heavily
dependent on the number of tests carried out, and that
testing rates ranged from 2031 to 63 928 per million
population up until 7 September 2020. The reported
number of COVID-19 deaths per million population also
varies (0.4 to 250 up until 7 September 2020), but is
generally low when compared with countries in Europe and
North America. While lockdown measures may have helped
inhibit community transmission, the pattern and nature of
the epidemic remains unclear. However, there are signs
of lockdown harming health by affecting the functioning
of the health system and causing social and economic
disruption.
Description
Research Article
Keywords
Lockdown, COVID-19, sub-Saharan African
Citation
Haider N, Osman AY, Gadzekpo A, et al. Lockdown measures in response to COVID-19 in nine sub-Saharan African countries. BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e003319. doi:10.1136/ bmjgh-2020-003319