Responding to COVID-19 in African Countries
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact societies, not only in terms of health, but also social and economic conditions and day-to-day life.
Ipsos conducted public opinion polls on behalf of the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC), a consortium of global public health organisations and private sector firms. PERC was created in March 2020 with the objective of providing African Union Member States with real-time information and guidance to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the continent.
The polling was conducted in 18 African Union Member States to understand the public’s knowledge, risk perception, attitudes, access to information, reactions, behaviours and practices related to COVID-19.
Key findings in Kenya:
- Support and adherence for personal Public Health and Social Measures (PHSMs): Support for and adherence to personal (such as washing hands, wearing a mask and avoiding physical greetings) were high, with nine in ten respondents reporting regularly wearing a face mask in the past week. In contrast to the widespread anti government sentiment on social media, the majority (72%) of survey respondents in Kenya expressed satisfaction with the government handling of the virus.
- Risk perceptions & information: Almost eight out of ten Kenya respondents agreed that COVID 19 would affect many people in their country, however, far fewer respondents thought their risk of catching the virus was high. Notably, more than half of respondents reported that they believed foreigners were testing the vaccine on them and discrediting African medicines.
- Essential health services: Respondents report significant disruptions to their health care access, with fear of catching the virus, inability to pay for services, and mobility restrictions cited as the most common barriers. The most commonly reported missed visits were for malaria, routine checkups and respiratory issues/asthma. There were also significant disruptions to maternal and child health services reported. Disruptions were highest among respondents living in urban areas.
- Economic burden & food security: More than 80% of respondents reported experiencing barriers to food access and loss of income since the pandemic. Only 8% of respondents surveyed reported receiving additional government assistance in the previous month.
This Executive Summary is supplemented by the Data Deck with the full set of data.