COVID-19 Impact Monitoring Burkina Faso at the household level Brief No.5 — January 2021 KEY MESSAGES • Four in five respondents (86.7%) w ould readily agree to be tested Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 7000 Burkina Faso for the Cov id - 19 virus; • Res idents of the capital Ouagadougou and rural areas are more 6000 open to the idea of being tested (89.7% and 89.0% resp.); 5000 Total cases • Four in five respondents (79.5%) w ould readily agree to be vac- Number of people Active cases cinated against the Covid -19 virus; 4000 • Those w ho refuse to be vaccinated cited four main reasons: (i) not 3000 being sure of the effectiveness of the vaccine; (ii) fear of side ef- fects; (iii) conviction that the risk of contamination is minimal; and 2000 (iv) believes that the vaccine does not w ork at all; • 70.2% of children aged 5 to 18 have returned to school; 1000 • Hand w ashing and w earing a mask are the most common meth- 0 ods used in schools to reduce the risk of contagion; 10-Jan-20 29-Feb-20 19-Apr-20 8-Jun-20 28-Jul-20 16-Sep-20 5-Nov-20 25-Dec-20 • How ever, a significant proportion of children (12.2%) say that no preventive measure is being implemented in their school. This calls for more aw areness and action on the part of the authorities. 77 Deaths 4,329 Recovered Source: INSD (as of December 25th, 2020) BACKGROUND This note presents the results of the fifth round of a nationally representative telephone survey ( HFPS). Data collection took place betw een December 9 and December 30, 2020. In addition to the 2,011 households successfully interview ed in the fourth round, in an effort to maintain sample size, additional 84 households that had not been successfully interview e d in previous rounds but did not refuse to participate in the survey w ere called in this fifth round. 9 households w ere excluded f rom the sample of Round 5 as they refused to participate in Round 4. 1,968 households (93.94% of the 2,095 attempted) w ere con- tacted and 1,944 (92.79%) w ere successfully interview ed in Round 5. Of those contacted, 24 households refused outright to be interview ed. The questionnaire inc ludes key modules that had already been administered in previous rounds, namely, access to food and health services, employ ment and income, and shocks. Major additions w ere made to the questionnaire: ( i) a module on Cov id - 19 testing and vaccination; (ii) expansion of the education module to cover the resumption of classes and get an idea of the impact of Covid - 19 on school attendance. For the sake of simplicity, this note focuses on these tw o new themes. COVID -19 TESTING AND VACCINATION When asked w hether respondents w ould agree to be tested for free for the Covid -19 virus, four in five respondents (86.7%) answ ered yes (Figure 1). There are differences across place of residence and poverty status. Residents of the capital Ouagadougou and rural areas are more open to the idea of being tested (89.7% and 89.0% respectively) compared to those in other urban areas (84.1%). A slightly s maller proportion (79.5%) of respondents say they w ould agree to be vaccinate d against Covid - 19. There are, how ever, important differences betw een place of residence and poverty status. Spatially, those livi ng in Ouagadougou are far less enthusiastic about getting vaccinated ( Figure 2). The poor are relatively more open to the idea o f getting vaccinated. Figure 1: Willingness to be tested for the COVID-19 virus Figure 2: Willingness to be vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus 100.0 100.0 89.7 89.0 89.1 90.0 86.7 86.6 85.0 90.0 86.4 84.1 79.5 80.0 80.0 76.8 72.4 70.0 70.0 60.0 60.0 53.6 50.0 50.0 40.0 40.0 30.0 30.0 20.0 20.0 10.0 10.0 0.0 0.0 National Ouagadougou Other urban Rural Non poor Poor National Ouagadougou Other urban Rural Non poor Poor 1 Burkina Faso • COVID-19 IMPACT MONITORING COVID -19 TESTING AND VACCINATION Those w ho refuse to be vaccinated cite four main reasons: (i) not being sure of the effectiveness of the vaccine (38.3%); (ii) Fear of side effects (26.7%); (iii) be convinced that the r isk of contagion is minimal (14.3%); and (iv) believes the va c- cine does not w ork at all (12.2%). A sign that aw areness campaigns must continued and de intens ified, a significant proportio n are convinced that the r isk of contagion is minimal. This answ er is predominantly given by the poor and those living in rural areas. 31.9% of the poor think that the ris k of contagion is minimal, and this is the number one reason poor people don't w ant to be vac- cinated. 26.7% of rural respondents think the same against only 2.9% and 6.5% for those living in Ouagadougou and other urban areas respectively. Figure 3: Reasons for not agreeing to be vaccinated against COVID - 19 100% 6.4 4.0 4.1 9.2 6.5 6.2 90% 2.9 6.5 14.3 8.4 80% 26.7 31.9 70% 39.3 38.6 31.6 26.7 60% 11.8 12.2 50% 40% 30% 38.3 42.0 35.0 40.5 31.7 39.0 20% 10% 15.8 17.1 12.2 9.3 8.8 10.5 0% National Ouagadougou Other urban Rural Non poor Poor I don't think it's gonna work I don't think it's safe I am concerned about the side effects I have a minimal risk of contracting COVID-19 I am against vaccines in general It's against my religion Other EDUCATION After the critical phase of Covid -19, schools reopened in October 1, 2020. 70.2% of children aged 5 to 18 have indeed returned to school. There is no significant difference betw een girls and boys. The school attendance rate is far low er in rur al areas (65.1%) compared to the capital Ouagadougou (87.4%) and other cities (83.6%). For the 29.8% of children w ho do not attend, marital and domestic obligations are by far the main constraints to school attendance (Figure 4). Supply issues — lac k of teachers or no school nearby — are also a major constraint, as mentioned by 13.7% of those w ho do not attend. Since Covid -19 remains a threat, schools that have opened are applying a number of measures to reduce the risk of contagion. Hand w ashing and face mas ks are the most common methods used in schools ( Figure 5). Surpr isingly, a s ignificant proportion of children (12.2%) say that that no preventive measure is being implemented in their school. Figure 4: Reason for not being enrolled in school Figure 5: COVID-19 m easures taken by the school Matrimonial obligation Hand washing points 66.0 27.3 Face masks 64.0 Domestic obligation 18.7 Running water 40.9 No school nearby / lack of teachers 13.7 Hand sanitizers 15.8 Schools closed due to coronavirus 10.9 None 12.2 Too old to attend 8.9 Do not know 3.5 Parents' death 8.5 Social distancing 2.2 Awaiting admission 4.9 Reduced number of people per class to meet… 1.6 Too young to participate 4.3 Berries for sick people 0.5 No time / no interest 1.4 Face shield 0.3 Schools closed for holidays 0.8 Temperature controls 0.1 Had enough / school completed 0.6 Fumigated school 0.1 Lack of money 0.0 Ambulance / school bus 0.0 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 This brief was prepared by Clarence Tsimpo Nkengne, Marco Tiberti, Prospere Backiny -Yetna and Marco Costantini from the World Bank, Zakaria Koncobo f rom the INSD, and Adama Tiendrebeogo f rom the WAEMU Commission. The team benef itted from useful adv ice and comments from Christophe Rockmore. The report was prepared with guid- ance from Soukeyna Kane, Maimouna Mbow Fam, Kof i Nouve, Pierella Paci, Johan A. Mistiaen, Jean-Pierre Chauf- four, Boureima Ouedraogo, and Jean Edouard Odilon Doamba. For further details on the data, visit http://surveys.worldbank.org/cov id-19 or http://www.insd.bf/n/ 2