For a country such as South Africa which is targeting malaria elimination, mobile and migrant populations pose a substantial risk to importation of malaria parasites. It has been hypothesized that halting cross-border movement of mobile and migrant populations will decrease the importation of malaria, however this option is not a politically, operationally, and financially viable prospect. It has social impacts as well, since families live on either side of the border and preventing travel will challenge family ties. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and closure of ports of entry (land and air) for non-essential travel into South Africa, a unique opportunity arose to test the hypothesis.
An interrupted time series analysis was done to assess whether the post-lockdown trends (April–December 2020) in monthly reported imported and local cases differed from the pre-lockdown trends (January 2015–March 2020). The analysis was conducted separately for KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, and Limpopo provinces.
