Covid-19: HSRC releases findings of second part of lockdown survey

The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, facilitated the release of the outcome of the second part of the Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) public perception survey on the impact of the coronavirus on South Africans.

During the first survey, conducted from 27 to 31 March, the council looked at how South Africans feel about the survey, what they understand, know and how they are reacting to the Covid-19 emergency. The second wave of the survey, conducted from 7 to 14 April, looked specifically at the lockdown as implemented from 27 March to 16 April.

Nzimande said, “We are part of tests and experiments that are testing drugs that are treating other diseases on whether or not they are responding in treating coronavirus… as yet there is no treatment and there is no vaccine for Covid-19.”

He said that the research helps the department understand how people are reacting to the virus, the lockdown and other measures that the government has taken to understand how people feel and think.

Professor Crain Soudien, the CEO of the HSRC said that there are some very important messages which come through in the results. “We think people know a great deal about the virus but, unfortunately, there are perceptions that are very problematic… South Africans have a low-risk perception of what is coming and this is an important finding.”

Dr Priscilla Reddy, from the HSRC, led the study. She said, “This survey provides a starting point to balance the country’s response at this tipping point in the fight against the pandemic.”

The HSRC has come up with a framework of health promotion and well-being to strategise interventions in a careful, systematic manner. This framework includes:

• Health strategies: These include health behaviour and health behaviour change, provision of health information and health literacy
• Personal protective equipment and facilities: This includes masks, gloves, soap, water and sanitiser
• Containment measures: This includes movement restrictions, travel bans, isolation and quarantine
• Legislation and policy: This includes the declaration of National State of Disaster invoking Section 27 of the Disaster Management Act
• Economic interventions: This includes support for businesses, tax support and food and health interventions
• Biotechnology: This includes surface spraying and infection control and vaccine and other drug development

For the study, they used both quantitative and qualitative studies. For the qualitative study, they used general population surveys and the qualitative survey used key informant interviews and social media surveys. Over 19 000 people participated in the survey. The survey asked participants about a number of points including:

Knowledge of Covid-19 prevention:

Reddy highlighted that there is a very high knowledge of the need to stay two metres away from others, staying away from infected people, hand washing and avoiding touching their face. “It is suggestive that all the health interventions that we’ve seen on the television by the president, Minister of Health and other important people have made some dent in knowledge.”

Risk perception:

Reddy said that the majority of people see themselves as low risk. She explained that being in lockdown could have given one in two people the perception that they are at low risk and one in five people believe they are at high risk.

She explained that if people deem themselves to be a low risk this might lead to complacency after the lockdown. “We may become victims of the successes gained during the lockdown if preventive behaviours are not intensified as we move forward.”

Adherence to lockdown regulations:

The majority of participants said that they had not left home at all or only to buy food and medicine.

“Our strategy is one of both behavioural change and policy, as we lift the lockdown, preventive behaviour change has to be intensified. All people of South Africa need to take responsibility for their own behaviour.

“We’ve asked people to deconstruct their normal lives to break the chain of transmission… the message is that people will have to disrupt their social relations and activities in order to save lives.”

Contact with others during lockdown:

About 29 per cent of people said that they came into contact with 10 or more people during the past seven days and 15 per cent had to use public transport to get to the shops.

Access to essentials:

Just under a quarter of participants indicated they had no money to buy food and about 13 per cent of people said that chronic medication was inaccessible during the lockdown. “Impoverished and remote communities continue to face barriers to health care access… these people who are struggling to access chronic medication during lockdown are probably the same people who struggle to access health care services related to Covid-19.”

Financial capability:

The majority of people said that they feel the lockdown will make it more difficult for them to pay bills, earn and income and feed their families. About 62 per cent of people said that the lockdown will make it difficult to pay their bills.

Access to alcohol and cigarettes:

During the lockdown, more people had access to cigarettes than alcohol. Research revealed that one in five people in SA smoke and approximately one in 10 smokers were able to access smokes during the lockdown. “The health promotion strategies involve a combination of behavioural change, information and policy-level intervention.”

Experience with law enforcement:

About 74 per cent of people indicated that they had no interaction with law enforcement and 14.7 per cent said they had been treated badly. The remaining people said they had either been treated well or very well, seven per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively.

“There is a need to be sensitive to the major disruption in people’s lives. Law enforcement officers play multiple roles in education and information provision to enforcement and social support.

“We have to provide clear guidance and support to people so they are able to adhere to the regulations, acknowledge that it is difficult for people to make major changes willingly. Law enforcement should be provided with clear guidelines and support.”

Nzimande concluded, “The matter of treating Covid-19 can’t be separated from the issue of economic growth and development so that we are able to have a growing and developing economy that is able to provide jobs and means of livelihood.

“We are at a moment of psychological crisis. The situation is immediate but we do have empirical data that shows goodwill, solidarity and Ubuntu. South Africans are saying, ‘We have your back’.” However, difficulties in accessing food and medicine could erode goodwill.

To read the HSRC’s breakdown of the results, go to https://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/media-briefs/general/lockdown-survey-results

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