Authors:
Rebecca D. Merrill, Fadhili Kilamile, Mwabi White, Daniel Eurien, Kanan Mehta, Joseph Ojwang, Marianne Laurent-Comlan, Peter Ahabwe Babigumira, Lydia Nakiire, Alexandra Boos, Wangeci Gatei, Julie R. Harris, Alain Magazani, Felix Ocom, Robert Ssekubugu, Godfrey Kigozi, Florent Senyana, Francis B. Iyese, Peter James Elyanu, Sarah Ward, Issa Makumbi, Allan Muruta, Elvira McIntyre, Khalid Massa, Alex R. Ario, Harriet Mayinja, Kakulu Remidius, Dede N. Ndungi
Corporate Author:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Published:
2022

The COVID-19 pandemic spread between neighboring countries through land, water, and air travel. Since May 2020, ministries of health for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda have sought to clarify population movement patterns to improve their disease surveillance and pandemic response efforts. Ministry of Health–led teams completed focus group discussions with participatory mapping using country-adapted Population Connectivity Across Borders toolkits. They analyzed the qualitative and spatial data to prioritize locations for enhanced COVID-19 surveillance, community outreach, and cross-border collaboration.