Long Term Socio-economic Effects of COVID-19 in Rural KENYA

When the novel coronavirus arrived in sub-Saharan Africa, many feared the continent would not be able to cope with the impact of such a fast-evolving pandemic. Memories of how the Ebola virus overwhelmed weak health systems in West Africa in 2014 loomed largely, and many braced themselves for the socio-economic fallout. But with COVID-19, this never fully materialized. In this research brief, we show that despite falls in income, in the long-term rural communities in western Kenya found a way to cope economically with COVID-19 and its containment measures.

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