Effect of the COVID-19 Lockdown on Mobile Payments for Maternal Health: Regression Discontinuity Analysis.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the unprecedented popularity of digital financial services for contactless payments and government cash transfer programs to mitigate the economic effects of the pandemic. The effect of the pandemic on the use of digital financial services for health in low- and middle-income countries, however, is poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess the effect of the first COVID-19 lockdown on the use of a mobile maternal health wallet, with a particular focus on delineating the age-dependent differential effects, and draw conclusions on the effect of lockdown measures on the use of digital health services. METHODS: We analyzed 819,840 person-days of health wallet use data from 3416 women who used health care at 25 public sector primary care facilities and 4 hospitals in Antananarivo, Madagascar, between January 1 and August 27, 2020. We collected data on savings, payments, and voucher use at the point of care. To estimate the effects of the first COVID-19 lockdown in Madagascar, we used regression discontinuity analysis around the starting day of the first COVID-19 lockdown on March 23, 2020. We determined the bandwidth using a data-driven method for unbiased bandwidth selection and used modified Poisson regression for binary variables to estimate risk ratios as lockdown effect sizes. RESULTS: We recorded 3719 saving events, 1572 payment events, and 3144 use events of electronic vouchers. The first COVID-19 lockdown in Madagascar reduced mobile money savings by 58.5% (P<.001), payments by 45.8% (P<.001), and voucher use by 49.6% (P<.001). Voucher use recovered to the extrapolated prelockdown counterfactual after 214 days, while savings and payments did not cross the extrapolated prelockdown counterfactual. The recovery duration after the lockdown differed by age group. Women aged >30 years recovered substantially faster, returning to prelockdown rates after 34, 226, and 77 days for savings, payments, and voucher use, respectively. Younger women aged <25 years did not return to baseline values. The results remained robust in sensitivity analyses using ±20 days of the optimal bandwidth. CONCLUSIONS: The COVID-19 lockdown greatly reduced the use of mobile money in the health sector, affecting savings, payments, and voucher use. Savings were the most significantly reduced, implying that the lockdown affected women's expectations of future health care use. Declines in payments and voucher use indicated decreased actual health care use caused by the lockdown. These effects are crucial since many maternal and child health care services cannot be delayed, as the potential benefits will be lost or diminished. To mitigate the adverse impacts of lockdowns on maternal health service use, digital health services could be leveraged to provide access to telemedicine and enhance user communication with clear information on available health care access options and adherence to safety protocols.

Optimization of "vehicle-UAV" joint distribution routing for cold chain logistics considering risk of epidemic spreading and green cost.

To address the epidemic, such as COVID-19, the government may implement the home quarantine policy for the infected residents. The logistics company is required to control the risk of epidemic spreading while delivering goods to residents. In this case, the logistics company often uses vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for delivery. This paper studies the distribution issue of cold chain logistics by integrating UAV logistics with epidemic risk management innovatively. At first, a "vehicle-UAV" joint distribution mode including vehicles, small UAVs and large UAVs, is proposed. The green cost for vehicles and UAVs is calculated, respectively. The formula for infection risk due to large numbers of residents gathering at distribution centers to pick up goods is then derived. Furthermore, based on the control of infection risk, an optimization model is developed to minimize the total logistics cost. A modified ant colony algorithm is designed to solve the model. The numerical results show that the maximum acceptable risk and the crowd management level of distribution centers both have significant effects on the distribution network, logistics cost and number of new infections. Our study provides a new management method and technical idea for ensuring the needs of residents during the epidemic.

Media briefing on COVID-19 - 21/08/2020

Metas ODS en Salud y Equidad: Impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en las desigualdades sociales

Metas ODS en Salud y Equidad: Impacto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en las desigualdades sociales y la promesa de “no dejar a nadie atrás”

Informe CEPAL-OPS: salud y economía: una convergencia necesaria para enfrentar COVID-19

La Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) y la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) presentaron el informe conjunto Salud y economía: una convergencia necesaria para enfrentar la enfermedad por el coronavirus del 2019 (COVID-19) y retomar la senda hacia el desarrollo sostenible. El informe aborda la necesidad de tomar medidas de salud para aplanar la curva de COVID-19 y así reanudar la reactivación de la economía en los países de la región de las Américas.

Live: ECLAC and PAHO present joint report on health and the economy in the context of COVID-19

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) presented on Thursday, July 30, a joint report entitled Health and the Economy: A Convergence Needed to Address COVID-19 and Retake the Path of Sustainable Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, in which they will address the need to take health-related measures to flatten the curve of COVID-19 and thereby resume the reactivation of the economy in countries in the Americas region.

Press briefing eclac and PAHO july 30, 2020

COVID-19: experiência de SMS de Florianópolis. Uso de EPI na APS

Covid-19 - “A gente está consumindo testes de PCR como água. A gente está consumindo EPIs em uma velocidade enorme, testes rápidos em uma velocidade enorme”, ressalta Matheus Pacheco, gerente de Inteligência e Informação da Secretaria de Saúde de Florianópolis

O grande recomeço: desenvolvimento econômico, inclusivo e sustentável

Saiba mais em: www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus/planosp

Plano São Paulo planeja retomar a economia de forma segura

Saiba mais em: www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus/planosp

Coronavírus: quais são os princípios do plano de retomada da economia?

Saiba mais em www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus

Coronavírus: como será o protocolo setorial de reabertura da economia?

Saiba mais em www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus

Coronavírus: quais medidas de incentivo foram realizadas na área econômica?

Saiba mais em www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus

Coronavírus: a economia de São Paulo parou?

Saiba mais em www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus

Coronavírus: como economia e saúde serão conciliadas?

Saiba mais em www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus

Coronavírus: a PEC do orçamento é uma medida positiva?

Saiba mais em www.saopaulo.sp.gov.br/coronavirus

Coletiva de imprensa coronavírus: medidas do Governo de São Paulo - 13/04/2020

Camilo Santana anuncia novas medidas no enfrentamento ao coronavírus

Governo do Ceará anuncia mais 150 leitos em hospitais de campanha e antecipa pagamento do Cartão Mais Infância Em mais um dia de trabalho focado em promover soluções para combater a pandemia no Ceará, o governador Camilo Santana utilizou suas redes sociais para anunciar novas medidas aos cearenses. Resultado da segunda reunião com o comitê de enfrentamento ao coronavírus no Estado, que reúne 25 entidades e órgãos públicos e privados, foi anunciado que o Governo do Ceará vai construir três hospitais de campanha, e disponibilizar um total de 150 novos leitos. As estruturas vão ser montadas anexas ao Hospitais Geral de Fortaleza (HGF), de Messejana e ao César Cals. O governador Camilo Santana explicou como a estrutura vai funcionar. Acesse o portal oficial do Estado sobre o Coronavírus (COVID-19) www.coronavirus.ceara.gov.br