Places Nigerians visited during COVID-19 Government stay-home policy: Evidence from analysis of data collected during the lockdown

Introduction: The compliance with Nigeria’s Government’s lockdown policy in the first wave of Covid-19 infection in the countryNigeria is important to curtailing community transmission of the infection. The objective of the research is to identify places Nigerians visited during the lockdown to help prepare for future infectious disease of public health importance.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of unconventional data collected using Google forms and online social media platforms during Covid-19 lockdown between April and June 2020 in Nigeria. Two datasets from: i) Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC) wave-1 and ii) college of medicine, university of Lagos were used for the research. Quantitative data were exported from Google Forms processed (DOA) using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Frequencies, graphs, and tables were used to present the results.

Results: There were 1304 and 879 participants in the PERC wave-1 and CMUL datasets, respectively. The mean age of CMUL dataset respondents was 33.1 (SD=8.3) years and 55.9% and 44.1% of respondents lived in locations with partial and complete covid-19 lockdown, respectively. Majority (91.8%) of respondents in locations with complete lockdown complied with the stay-home policy. A higher proportion of females (92.7%) complied than males (81.2%) with the stay-home policy. Employment status (p = 0.002), financial earnings (p <0.001), gender (p < 0.001), geopolitical zone of residence (p < 0.001) had statistically significant association with compliance with stay home policy.

From the CMUL dataset and irrespective of the type of lockdown, the more most common place of visited during the lockdown was the market (shopping); in 73% for places states with partial lockdown and in 68% for places states with complete lockdown. Visits to families and friends was more in places states with complete (16.1%) than places states with partial (8.4%) lockdown.

Conclusion: The study finds the market (shopping) as the main place visited during the lockdown compared to visiting friends/family, places of worship, Gym, and going to work. It is important in future for Government to plan how citizens will can safely get access markets and get other household items during lockdowns for future infectious disease epidemics.