Abstract

This study is to evaluate the response of the government to COVID-19 pandemic in the Buea municipality. The study is carried out in Buea, the administrative headquarters of the south west region of Cameroon.

The structure used for data collection were questionnaires, interview guide meant  to provide us with the necessary information needed for this research work. The study focus on how each instrument was structured as well as it’s compositions. The questionnaire being a quantitative instruments to be used.It provides the means at which opinions of people regarding the issy at stake to the research investigation are better perceived.

These questionnaires where destined to a given sample population of 50 respondents. The researcher process requires a specific method of the collected data because on it’s own data are meaningless unless they hay been systematically interpreted. The inductive method of data presentation was used.

The instrument for data collection is used e research in the interview t and personal observation of event and circumstances related to covid pandemic. Findings corresy to the same questionnaire indicates that the first statement recorded 47(94%) for positive response in the washing of hands, social distance and wearing of face mask, were some of the measures the government adopted to combat COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the respondents satisfied with the manner in which the government handle the situation which occurred in the country.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to study

COVID-19 or “the pandemic” is often referred to as a “novel Coronavirus” because almost everything about it has been startlingly new – “novel.” When COVID-19 was first identified late in 2019, scientists around the globe knew almost nothing about it. The disease’s origins, seriousness of infection, methods or rates of transmission, how to prevent or treat it, its longterm health side effects, if contracting the disease would create immunity or how long immunity would last for different degrees of infection were mysteries (Dabrowska et al., 2020:19). Therefore, at the outset, government officials had almost no basis for developing and implementing public health policy approaches and even less ability to propose “balanced” public health-economic public policy approaches (Moon, 2020:20).

The world is experiencing, since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed several thousand lives worldwide. COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan city, the capital of China’s

Hubei province and has since spread globally, resulting in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (Song ZG et al, 2020:42). It was declared as a global pandemic by WHO on 12th March 2020. The first case was reported in Cameroon on March 6th, 2020. As of the third week of June 2020, more than 11,000 cases had been reported with more than 300 deaths (WHO, 2020). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon, the government and health partners put in place a series of measures to prevent the transmission of the pandemic. Among these measures were the closure of borders and schools, prohibition of gatherings of more than fifty people, respect of social distancing, postponement of school and university competitions, closure of bars, restaurants and entertainment spots from 6 P.M., a toll-free number 1510 set up for the mobilization of rescue teams and quarantine . By April 9th 2020, additional measures put in place included compulsory wearing of masks in public places, confinement imposed on persons at risk and intensification of educational efforts through audio-visual and print media (Nicolas, 2020:10).

As scientists began to learn about the danger that COVID-19 infection represented to individuals, and about “community spread” through airborne and surface transmission, public health strategies became apparent: social distance, wearing masks, using hand sanitizer, and regularly washing hands. As scientists began to learn about different rates of infection and consequences of infection in certain sub-populations, public officials started to know where they should emphasize public health interventions (International Monetary Fund, 2020).

Testing and tracing were core strategic policy tools (Ritchie & Roser, 2020, p 23).

But these public health approaches required changes in individuals’ and families’ behaviors  changes that many people in countries world-wide deemed unwanted and unneeded. Many did not believe that the COVID-19 was a serious threat to them or their communities, and many understood that effective public health policy approaches would have serious negative impacts on personal freedoms and economic activity. People wanted “a silver bullet” solution not interference in their lives and livelihoods. Governments around the world had to make policy decisions with little knowledge and considerable public opposition (Bouckaert et al, 2020; Christensen & Laegreid, 2020). Inevitably, different national and local governments took widely differing approaches to dealing with COVID-19 (. Bremmer, 2020; Dzigbede et al., 2020).

Then, as medical scientists and public officials were starting to learn about the disease and effective strategies for containing it in late 2020 and in the early months of 2021, several new variants were identified. These new variants, which are commonly known by where they were first recognized, including the U.K., South Africa and Brazil variants, began gaining footholds in countries around the world. These variants – and others as time passes – are more transmissible, possibly more deadly, and are not as well protected against by currentlyapproved vaccines. These new variants are causing huge surges in new cases and are taking huge tolls in human lives. ( Bremmer,2020).

There are multiple other reasons why governments’ responses have varied. For example, while acknowledging that “democracies” and “authoritarian states” are only points on a continuum, it holds that some authoritarian-leaning governments have been able to impose restrictions on behaviors in their populations that most democratic-leaning governments could not – or at least not for very long. Differences in government structures and ideologies, however, only begin to explain why countries have taken vastly different approaches, particularly to “closing down” and testing and tracing (Serikbayeva et al., 2021:31). And it is premature to assert the outcomes of the dramatically different government approaches. Preliminary data are becoming available about the effectiveness of different policy approaches, but the story is still in its infancy. As the issue is being assembled, spikes are recurring is areas where the disease had been waning (Webeck & Angst, 2020:12). We will not be able to know true outcomes for years.

A study conducted in Buea municipality at the onset of the pandemic in Cameroon showed a low level of knowledge of the population of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the progression of the pandemic in Cameroon and the population resistance to comply with government and stakeholder preventive measures, the government reinforced the implementation of preventive measures by putting fines on defaulters, making provision for hand washing points in public places and distribution of soap and hand sanitizers to the population (Mandaah, 2020: 45). At the time the baseline study was conducted, they were 10 reported cases of corona virus in Cameroon with no case in the South West region. Two months later, more than 11,000 cases were reported with the disease present in all the 10 regions of Cameroon (Mandaah, 2020). This study aimed at assessing the trend of the population knowledge, attitude and practice of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Buea municipality.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Few governments have proven adept to “surprise management.” With the pandemic, elected, appointed, and permanent officials have had to make unpopular decisions with minimal and often-changing input about the nature of the disease and which steps would yield the most beneficial results efficiently. Indeed, there has been considerable disagreement about which measures best represent “successful” government interventions, to a large degree because of the disease’s impacts on the public health and the economy, citizen resistance, and because knowledge about the disease is still limited and this have affected people’s lives as the disease has spread in many country still yet the government has not found permanent solution to this disease. It is against this background that the current study seeks to address the response of the government towards covid – 19 pandemic. The Cameroon government is using the pandemic to collect fund from international organisation which   they embezzle by few individuals.

1.3 Research Questions

1. What are the response measures adopted by the Cameroon government to fight covid-19 pandemic?
2. How effective are these response measures to combat covid-19?
3. What are the challenges faced by the government in the response to covid-19 pandemic?

Check out: International Relations Project Topics with Materials