Background of the Pandemic, COVID-19, in Ethiopia
The world is in turmoil due to non-weapon impacts of COVID-19. COVID-19 severely heated the social, political, economic and environment of the globe. The researchers of COVID-19 compare the pandemic with the Second World War [6]:
The recent outbreak of COVID-19 is the worst global crisis after the Second World War. Since no successful treatment and vaccine have been reported, efforts to enhance the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of the public, especially the high-risk groups, are critical to manage COVID-19 pandemic.
The status of the COVID-19 is manifested through a summary of total cases, daily cases, and total deaths in the following figures [Period: Feb and Jul 2020] (Fig. 2, 3, 4)Ethiopian government took several preventive measures both at community and individual levels. At the community level, the imposed preventive measures are shouting down schools, suspending sporting events and public gatherings; suspending flights to several countries; and introduced a mandatory self-quarantine for 14 days on arrival from abroad. Besides, at the individual level preventive measures are hand washing; avoiding handshaking and contact with others; social distancing; maintaining respiratory hygiene; wearing masks for health workers and infected groups, and isolation after infection or suspicion for infection.
However, studies indicated that the relevance and feasibility of both individual and community level measures heavily depend on how the public perceived the risks and impacts of being infected with the virus [7]. The indicators of the above-mentioned efforts have been kept a low opportunity window to prevent the pandemic. Since March 2020 only 6 deaths out of a population of 109 million by COVID-19. This is a rewarding achievement even if it requires more stemming and endeavors.
Risk Communication Strategy Development: Ethiopian Perspective
The Ethiopian government has responded swiftly and boldly to the COVID-19 crisis.
The government initially well communicated the outbreak by providing public health COVID-19 prevention strategies to aware of the public. Besides, the Ethiopian government went through a terrain of major tasks of risk communication: (1) strictly followed house to house screenings, diagnostic tests, encouraging production and economic activities to continue during the crisis; (2)the Ethiopian authorities have implemented a strict regime of rigorous contact tracing, isolation, compulsory quarantine, and treatment.
Further, the task forces are arranged for the public universities’ dormitories to increase the capacity of quarantine centers. Above all, the Ethiopian government has relied heavily on community mobilization and public-awareness campaigns. Therefore, the government ensured a coherent and patterned public health prevention response by maximizing coordination among public universities at different levels. However, the Ethiopian government COVID-19 strategies must reflect and dependent on the local context, the evolving nature of the pandemic, binding resource constraints, and weak international collaboration.
Combating an outbreak needs to arrange a well-established system to communicate the risk. Risk communication is a pro-active communication tool which helps to make rapid public health response. One of the most important risk communication system development is to organize hierarchical responsible bodies from different and in different organizations. According to WHO guideline [5] it is possible to avoid miscommunication, confusion and increase protective behaviors “by alerting a population and partners to infectious disease risk, surveillance of potential cases increases, protective behaviors are adopted, confusion is limited and communication resources are more likely to be focused”. In the aftermath of the close of educational systems, the government arranged a task force for mobilizing the stakeholders towards combating the impacts of the COVID-19. One of the task forces is the Ethiopian higher education sector, Ministry of Science and Higher Education (MoSHE) COVID-19 taskforce (Fig. 5). MoSHE is responsible to communicate with as well as lead and mobilize science, higher education as well as the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Ethiopia. The task force also arranged Higher Education Institutions (HEI)-as HEI-levels tasks. Under the umbrella of MoSHE, 45 universities are containing one million students. These universities were communicated by MoSHE and the universities returned all students to their family before the state of emergency. The following figure (Fig. 5) manifests the universities as the major sector to participate in the national COVID-19 task-forces. Their roles during the pandemic also briefly stated in the areas of research and community services.
MoSHE’s risk communication during the COVID-19
There are different strategies of risk communication developed by HEI during the COVID-19. One of the strategies is to establish a task force in Ethiopian higher education where the university's top management establishes a task force at university levels. The other important risk communication during the COVID-19 is to develop a webinar for discussions, meetings, and seminars. MoSHE, for instance, communicated through a webinar developed for the promotion of scientific research in Africa facing the COVID-19 to share the Ethiopian experiences (Fig. 6.)
The objective of the webinar was to share national scientific research activities on COVID-19. It could be one of the examples of developing a webinar to connect higher education officials. Similarly, the Ministry held different online VIRTUAL meetings with top management of the universities' decision-making on the current and prospects of the higher education research, community service, and teaching-learning processes.
Media during Risk Communication
The new digital era increased ease and accessibility to disseminate information and communicate with many people instantaneously through the utilization of these new technologies could become crucial in effectively communicating risk during a pandemic. On Friday, 13th February 2020, Ethiopia confirmed and communicated its first case of COVID-19 at the capital city, Addis Ababa. The government agreed to share information regarding COVID-19 activities that could be reported daily by the Ministry of Health via social media and the Ethiopian COVID-19 monitoring platform at www.covid19.et. However, the different mainstream media such as TV, Radio, and Newspapers are crucial in stemming the outbreak. They also entertained different sorts of communication using verbal and nonverbal communication like public health hand wash strategies. Moreover, universities and MoSHE risk communication strategies relied on webinars, emails, social media, telegrams, and virtual online communications. Scholars suggest that “one potential way to ensure appropriate risk communication is using social media channels, and ensuring an ongoing consistent media presence” [9]. This argument asserts that the requirement of broader public messaging is efficient to make effective risk communication during the outbreaks. However, this might be difficult to address people of developing countries like Ethiopia where the internet penetration rate is below 15%. Besides, the assumption seems elusion to rural people where 80% of the population of Ethiopia is living. Those factors make risk communication infeasible in Ethiopia. This opportunity in Ethiopian higher education institutions could be somewhat mandatory to take preventive measures for those who are connected online.
Higher Education Challenges and Responses: Global Higher Education Perspectives
The international literature on COVID-19 and higher education is growing. I can found many global literature on “COVID-19 and higher educations” However, a previous survey report [10] on higher education challenges and responses to COVID-19 brought some findings in the middle, May 2020, of the study period of current research( Feb-Aug2020). It was conducted by international Association of Universities. It had monitored the impacts of COVID-19 on higher education around the world.The global survey report focused on the assesment of the impact of COVID-19 on research, teaching and learning, community engagment, students enrolment and partnership. Therefore, the finding of the report indicated that almost all HEIs teaching learning affected the face-to face and turned into distance teaching and learning. Besides, the report indicated that mobility is everywhere negative. Moreover, 80% of HEIs research affected by COVID-19.Further, COVID-19 weakened partnership. Most litrature forecasted its impact will remain up to the the disrubtion of the pandemic spread around the world. It has a multidimensional crisis that affect all of us.
High Level Risk Communication: Ethiopian Perspective
Ethiopia made the highest level of decision-making and the level of risk communication. Ethiopia declares the State of Emergency to curb transmission of Coronavirus on 14 April 2020. The Government declared a 5-month state of emergency to limit the spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19). The state of emergency declared under the Proclamation 3/2020, also known as the “State of Emergency Proclamation Enacted to Counter and Control the Spread of COVID-19 and Mitigate Its Impact”. Furthermore, the House endorsed a seven-member State of Emergency inquiry board to scrutinize its implementation following the Constitution. There were different activities banned, restricted, and closed for five months of the state of emergency. All public gatherings: The ban applied to all religious, governmental, non-governmental, commercial, political, and social gatherings. The gathering is of a group of four people where individuals expected to ensure that they are 2 meters apart at all times. Different activities: greetings by handshake, land borders movement, passenger loads for all national and local journeys, reducing workforces, students and teachers meetings, and measures on social distancing, sporting activities, and children’s playgrounds closed. Penalties: Any person failing to comply with these obligations will face up to three years imprisonment or a fine of between £25.00 – £5,000.00.
Research Based Risk Communication: University Perspective
The researcher used key major terms to find research conducted in the Ethiopian context since the outbreak of the pandemic, COVID-19. The terms used to search were “knowledge”, “attitude”, “practice”, “COVID-19”, “pandemic”, “prevention”, and “control”. Besides, other technical terms were used to explore the articles. Based on these search terms the researcher found five articles published from Feb-Jul 2020.These papers published by the Ethiopian higher education academicians. Almost all papers focused on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) study approach. Therefore, the articles are focusing on preventive and control methods of risk communication. The five articles thematic findings and respected suggestions are summarized as follows (Table 1).
Table 1
COVID-19 research articles and their respective findings
Author
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Affiliation
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Type of research
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Site of research
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Participants
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Instruments
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Study findings
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Researchers suggestions
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Akalu,2020
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University of Gondar
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Cross-sectional study
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Addis zemen Hospital
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404,chronic disease patients
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questionnaire
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The prevalence of poor knowledge and poor practice was high
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Leaflets prepared in local languages should be administered and health professionals should provide detailed information about COVID-19 to their patients
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Kebede,2020
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Jimma University
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Cross-sectional study
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University medical center
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247,clents, patients
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exit interview
|
The status of knowledge and desirable practices were not sufficient enough to combat this rapidly spreading virus.
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COVID-19 risk communication and public education efforts should focus on building an appropriate level of knowledge while enhancing the adoption of recom-mended self-care practices with special emphasis on high-risk audience segments
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Shigute,2020
|
|
viewpoints
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-
|
-
|
-
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A good balance has been maintained, and economic activities, especially agriculture and industry, have continued with a view to maintaining food security and preventing unrest.
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While preparatory measures need to continue, the country’s best hopes lie in its strategy of early imposition and continued adherence, if not strengthening of preventive measures, to avoid widespread community transmission of the virus.
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Bahrey,2020
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AksumUniversity
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Cross sectional study
|
|
415,nurses
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questionnaire
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Nurses had nearly three-fourth good knowledge and favorable attitude regarding COVID–19.More than two-thirds of thenurses had good infection prevention practices towards COVID–19. Nurses had an almost disturbed psychological response to COVID–19.
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WHO and the Ministry of Health still must provide more information for better control of the infectious disease.
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Jemal,2020
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9 Universities
|
Cross-sectional study
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9 university hospitals
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422,health workers
|
questionnaire
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The overall level of knowledge and attitude was good. However, the practice was relatively low. Source of information like social media, telecommunication, and television/radio were positively associated with healthcare workers' knowledge about COVID-19.
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Strategies for enhancing the capacity of healthcare workers to develop practice are needed.
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Sources: [2, 6, 11, 12, 13] |
SWOT Analysis of COVID-19 Prevention and Control Strategies in Ethiopian Higher Education
SWOT analysis refers to the assessment and evaluation of various strengths (S), weaknesses (W), opportunities (O), threats (T), and other factors that influence a fight to combat COVID-19. It comprehensively, systematically, and accurately describes the scenario of COVID-19 in Ethiopian higher education. The results could help the COVID-19 taskforces to formulate the corresponding strategies, plans, and countermeasures. This method could be used to identify favorable and unfavorable factors, solve current problems in a targeted manner, recognize the challenges and obstacles faced, and formulate strategic plans to guide scientific decisions [14](Wang & Wang, 2020).Accordingly, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats manifested in Ethiopian higher education have been summarized in the preceding section [Table 2].
Table 2
SWOT analysis of Ethiopian higher education risk communication strategies
Strengths:
- rapid response, campus shutdown, absence of face-to-face communication;
-early awareness creation on the COVID-19 preventions;
-volunteer training on COVID-19 preventions;
-evaluating the activities of COVID-19 preventions;
-establishing the task forces at the university level;
-establishing volunteers for COVID-19 preventions;
-Research proposal development on COVID-19;
-establishing hand wash facilities;
-Production of sanitizers, face masks(Based on WHO standard);
-facilitating ICT based virtual and e-learning platforms;
- establishing exclusive COVID-19 diagnostic testing laboratories;
-health care campaigns on social media, mass media;
-COVID-19 external research collaboration;
University COVID-19 information centers;
UV apparatus development, and mechanical ventilator;
-software applications developed to facilitate risk communication;
-humanitarian support to the neighbor communities;
-virtual postgraduate graduation (Masters, Ph.D.); and
-Promoting academic staffs;
|
Opportunities:
- created a room for innovation and dissemination;
-budget allocation for research on COVID-19 and related matters;
-media and digital skills of instructors; researchers, leaders in the context of COVID-19;
-availability of internet except for two-weeks lockdown;
-COVID-19 task force level participation;
-internet infrastructures;
-idle human resources to mobilize on COVID-prevention health cares;
-the innovation of local UV apparatus and mechanical ventilator development funds;
- increasing humanitarian support;
-time as a resource to do different activities
-awareness creation opportunities;
-scaling up efforts to fight COVID-19;
-promoting sports activities on campus; promoting physical exercises
-low level of teaching staff load;
- availability of resources(online) and time; and
Production and economic activities to continue during the crisis.
-research call on COVID-19; and
-the publication calls on COVID-19
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Weaknesses:
-Weak clinical research outputs;
-most Ethiopian higher education research is focused on KAP (80%);
-unable to transact eLearning at undergraduate levels;
Inadequate infrastructure on the student's side where most students come from 80% of the rural population are living;
-unequal accessibility of teaching materials;
-lack of students motivation to participate in eLearning; and
-poor technological manipulation skills (poor acculturation
of eLearning)
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Threats:
-Internet outage during COVID-19 due to conflicts in Addis Ababa and Oromiya region;
-eLearning and digital communication;
-depression due to the lockdown during COVID-19
-fear of the state of emergency;
-social gatherings and movements are restricted;
-academic life disturbed due to a call at stay home;
-security, protection of COVID-19;
- lack of using consistent face mask;
-weak application and follow up of state of emergency;
- Conflicts in some part of Ethiopia prevailed shock waves of anger, resentment, and frustration throughout Ethiopia; and
-an increasing number of COVID-19 cases and deaths could be a future threat to Ethiopian higher education;
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