Effect of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and infant preventive healthcare services utilization in Ethiopia.
The government of Ethiopia has shown strong commitment to reduce preventable maternal and child
mortality by adapting and implementing the prevention strategies at different levels.
Some of the key maternal and child health interventions in Ethiopia include provision of skilled antenatal,
delivery and postnatal cares, and skilled newborn care and immunization services.
However, the essential maternal and infant healthcare services utilization remains low in Ethiopia due to
different interrupting manmade and natural disasters, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
The aim of this analysis was to determine the percent change in maternal and infant preventive healthcare
services utilization during early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic to learn lessons and evaluate how much
the pandemic has affected the essential services utilization in the nation.
This study was initiated using District Health Information System-2 (DHIS-2) and performance monitoring
for action Ethiopia (PMA-Ethiopia) datasets. PMA panel survey was conducted in six regions that
collectively represent 90% of the population in Ethiopia. Based on the number of PMA panel survey
regions and for proper comparison the corresponding six regions from DHIS-2 were included in this study.