Measuring Social Contact in Rural KwaZulu-Natal during the Covid-19 Epidemic

We aim to identify the impact of government regulations for COVID-19 on social interaction and behaviour. To achieve this we will interview 400 residents of the Africa Health Research Institute Population Intervention Platform area in northern KwaZulu-Natal. These interviews will be repeated every two weeks up to eight times. We will collect information on the frequency and characteristics of social contacts during the Covid-19 epidemic, and assess how the effect of government policies varies by by age, gender, comorbidity and social position. We will compare these results to data from 2019 on other residents. These data will be used as inputs into age-structured models - thus informing decisions about changing lockdown levels and format, and informing the local community about how COVID-19 is affecting them and their families and neighbours.