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Abstract

Introduction: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to become a global pandemic and public health crisis. According to Worldometer, 2021 as of 15 of January, 2021, there were 25,219,283 active cases and 2,036,103 deaths globally. Ethiopia reported the first COVID-19 cases on 13 March 2020; since then, the disease has spread over all parts of the country. as of 15 of January, 2021, 130,326 cases have been reported, of which, 45.7% have recovered and 1.5% died. Quarantine is an emergency measure to manage a health crisis. It is imposed on people under emergency law and limits citizens’ human rights and freedoms. It has significant psychological, social and economic impacts. So this narrative study was conducted to inform and share lived experience at Dire Dawa University Quarantine and isolation centers

Methods: We employed a mixed method at different stages (quantitative survey, reports, qualitative interview, lived experience of the researchers). Study participants were recruited using purposive sampling for qualitative data while records of returnees from Yemen and Djibuti were used. Qualitative data were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics, and we used content analysis for qualitative data analysis using MAXQDA software.

Result: As quarantine is a support measure to surveillance, its effectiveness depends first of all on the effectiveness of other pillars working on coronavirus diseases. Moreover, quarantine is most efficient when only primary returnees are under observation: the more returnees under quarantine, the more logistically challenging the operation will be and the more contacts will have to be monitored. Justified line-listing (and not approximate and including too many returnees) is essential to the success of quarantine.

With these premises, we argue in the following that the use of quarantine in Dire Dawa university (Ethiopia) was justified and has given a positive contribution to the fight against Ebola, particularly in rural areas. However, implementation was hampered by many problems, especially in the initial phases, as there was no previous experience to draw upon. It has been a slow process of improvement through trial and error; good lessons can be now taken from this experience. The main challenges we faced and that of returnee’s complains were menstrual pad and that of issues with couples. This implies that implementation of quarantine centers during COVID-19 pandemic have negatively impacted sexual and reproductive health and rights of adolescent women.