Abstract
COVID-19 has sickened and killed millions of people globally. Conventional non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly stay-at-home orders (SAHOs), though effective for limiting the spread of disease have significantly disrupted social and economic systems. The effects also have been dramatic in Africa, where many states are already vulnerable due to their developmental status. This study is designed to test hypotheses derived from the public health policymaking literature regarding the roles played by medical and political factors as well as social, economic, and external factors in African countries' issuance of SAHOs in response to the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using event history analysis, this study analyzed these five common factors related to public health policy to determine their impact on African states' varying decisions regarding the issuance of SAHOs. The results of this analysis suggest that medical factors significantly influenced decisions as did factors external to the states, while the role of political factors was limited. Social and economic factors played no discernible role. Overall, this study suggests how African leaders prioritized competing factors in the early stages of a public health crisis.
Highlights
COVID-19 has disrupted medical, social, and economic systems worldwide
The objective of this study is to assess the relative roles of these competing considerations. It is to test hypotheses derived from the public health policymaking literature regarding the roles played by medical and political factors, which have been identified as key forces in public health policy [12, 13], as well as social, economic, and external factors in motivating governments in Africa to issue a stay-at-home orders (SAHOs) in response to COVID-19 (N = 41) or not (N = 13) in the first five months of the pandemic
The results indicate that seven of the independent variables are at least marginally statistically associated with the issuance of SAHOs when the effects of the other independent variables are not controlled for
Summary
Rampant infections and high death counts have led governments to implement several policies aimed at containing and combating the disease. These efforts have ranged from the relatively benign to the oppressive, from public awareness campaigns, curfews, and social distancing orders to limits on public gatherings, travel restrictions, and school and business closures. Governments have resorted to stay-at-home orders (SAHOs), which have restricted people to only essential activities such as meeting medical and sustenance needs [1] Public health policies such as SAHOs that tightly restrict social interaction have been shown to effectively limit the spread of the disease [2], but the consequences in non-health domains have been severe [3].
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