The impact of South Africa's COVID-19 Health Care Response - a Sociological Analysis

The project seeks to generate an inter-disciplinary, in-depth situational analysis of the impact of South Africa's healthcare response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The project explores the factors that facilitate and/or hinder the State's response to COVID-19. It specifically gauges the effect and impact of the response on the health sector and on vulnerable communities. It investigates how and to what extent vulnerable categories of people (defined broadly as those who are immunocompromised, have co-morbidities, are malnourished, the elderly, children, the unemployed, those living in informal settlements, the homeless, the undocumented, the incarcerated, etc) are considered, engaged, catered and cared for (or not, as the case may be) through the various phases of the State's COVID-19 response. The project aims to discern what potential impact the provision of and the pandemic health response itself has on vulnerable people to further advance our understanding of the social determinants of health and health care during this time. Broad recommendations for future health policy and practice and research into health system inclusivity and preparedness are also likely to emerge from this project. Research training, capacity building, and stakeholder engagement are key developmental objectives at the centre of this project's research design. Expected Outputs  Journal articles and Media publications  Masters research as part of the Masters of Arts in Health Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand  Training events: "Conducting Covid-19 related research amongst vulnerable populations" and "Informing and Empowering. Covid- 19 and vulnerable communities"  Public engagements in national international events.  Seminar with academics, government officials, policymakers, Ngo's and communities, to debate on the knowledge produced and carried out interventions.