Elsevier

World Development

Volume 140, April 2021, 105352
World Development

Research Notes
Covid-19 vs. Ebola: Impact on households and small businesses in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105352Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Eastern DRC simultaneously faced outbreaks of Covid-19 and Ebola Virus Disease.

  • We highlight large differences in the socio-economic impact of these outbreaks.

  • Covid-19 has a much higher impact on the economy and (food) security.

  • This is due to Covid-19′s higher transmissibility and related containment measures.

  • The socio-economic impact of Covid-19 is largely unrelated to case numbers.

Abstract

In April 2020, the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo was facing two major infectious disease outbreaks: Covid-19 and Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). We highlight large differences in the socioeconomic impact of these two outbreaks. The data come from a phone survey that we conducted in the period May-July 2020 with 637 households and 363 small firms from a megacity and two rural communes in the province of North Kivu. While 3,470 EVD cases and 2,287 EVD deaths were confirmed since August 2018, self-reported impacts of EVD on revenues, access to food and behavior were limited. In contrast, only 251 Covid-19 cases were reported as of July 22nd but respondents reported sizable effects on livelihoods, especially in the large urban hub, and in part driven by substantial job losses. Our results show that different infectious disease outbreaks can have very different effects, largely unrelated to case numbers of the disease. Moderately lethal but highly transmissible viruses such as Covid-19 can trigger a steep economic downturn, especially in areas with high economic interconnectedness, reflecting both national and international policies to contain the pandemic.

Keywords

COVID-19
Ebola
Democratic Republic of Congo
Emerging infectious diseases
Socio-economic impact

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