Exploring barriers to social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Zimbabwe: a qualitative study

Social distancing is an effective intervention for reducing the transmission of COVID-19. However, adherence varies across settings. We explored barriers to compliance with Zimbabwe's social distancing guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We conducted a qualitative study with a sample of 30 key informant interviews and 10 focus group discussions with health workers, village health workers, church leaders, traditional healers, teachers, youth leaders, women leaders, transporters and members of general population purposively selected across 10 sites in Zimbabwe during the period of September-October 2022. We audio-taped the sessions, transcribed them verbatim and translated the data into English. We used inductive thematic analysis to code the data and identify themes iteratively.

We generated four themes as barriers to social distancing. These included (1) personal attitudes or beliefs including negative perceptions about COVID-19 preventive measures, low-risk perceptions and lack of knowledge; (2) access-related challenges such as transport challenges, lack of on-premise water, limited household or meeting space, incapacitated quarantine facilities and caregiving a COVID-19 case; (3) the negative impact of social distancing on productivity and livelihoods; and (4) its negative impact on sociocultural and religious beliefs.

Barriers to adherence to social distancing measures, as perceived by Zimbabweans, were personal attitudes or beliefs, socioeconomic, cultural and religious factors. In future pandemics, a tailored approach to public health messaging and interventions is necessary to increase adherence.