Perceptions of COVID-19 threat in Uganda and its impact on household welfare: Evidence from the High-Frequency Phone Survey on COVID-19

The novel coronavirus that emerged around late 2019 from the central province of Hubei in China in the city of Wuhan has greatly affected people who live around the world on a scale unreported before. The pandemic has affected millions of people and thousands have died ever since its discovery. Worse still besides the direct impacts of the disease such as cumulative infection and deaths reported around the world, the indirect effects such as strict containment measures of partial and full economic lockdowns have disrupted global supply chains, led to the loss of jobs due to massive layoffs and loss in government revenues (Mukiza, 2020). Despite impressive efforts towards the production of a vaccine with some being in approval stages, total control measures of COVID-19 in developing countries such as Uganda are still in their infancy phases and most likely may be unachievable. Therefore, this study aimed at examining the predictors of people’s perceptions of COVID-19 in Uganda, using the first phase of the Uganda, High-Frequency Phone Survey (UHPS, 2020).