Effects of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic on Primary Health Care Service Delivery and Data Management in Nigeria, July 2020

Abstract

Primary health care, the foundation of healthcare systems around the world, recognized for its ability to deliver efficient, equitable, high-quality, patient-centered care. As with the rest of the world, Nigeria is currently dealing with COVID-19 pandemic. On February 27, 2020, the first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was reported. As of July 31 2020, there were over Forty Thousand cases and 900 deaths. We assessed the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on primary health care service delivery and data management in Nigeria A desk review (secondary data analysis) of health data submitted monthly (January 2020 – May 2020 reporting period) on National Health Management Information System hosted on the national instance of the District Health Information System was conducted. Other procedures include: Selection of primary healthcare performance indicators, download of data from District Health Information System, data cleaning and analysis There was no significant impact on the completeness of the report for the month of March, April and May 2020 which dropped from 83.2% in February, 2020 to 82.7%, 82.7% and 82.4% in March, April and May, 2020 respectively. Amidst the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the FCT despite the total lockdown proclaimed by the government, other PHC indicators had also been on the decline. Since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Lagos, PHC indicators had been on the decline. In Ogun state, Total facility attendance declined significantly in the month of March and April when the lockdown was implemented. Although fixed sessions for routine immunization increased, antenatal attendance declined and Penta dropout rate increased over the period of the lockdown. Access to healthcare is a fundamental human right, but the strain that the COVID 19 pandemic has placed on Nigerian citizens especially in areas where restrictive measures were met has in turn, affected many people’s access to healthcare.Funding Statement: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: Not required.