This study uses the Census 2011 and Community Survey 2016 data, adopts the Alkire-Foster multidimensional poverty index (MPI) approach and addresses numerous shortcomings of the original Statistics South Africa method by including numerous indicators from four dimensions (socio-economic, demographic, housing and hygiene, health) to derive a revised COVID-19 vulnerability index. The empirical findings indicate the index was relatively higher for African female individuals living in rural areas of the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces, coming from households headed by elderly aged 55 years or above. Alfred Nzo, Amathole, Harry Gwala, OR Tambo and Umzinyathi are the five district councils that are most vulnerable to COVID-19 (the first four were declared COVID-19 hotspot areas by the South African government in December 2020). The results of the index decomposition found that indicators from the housing and hygiene dimension contributed most to the COVID-19 vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Development Southern Africa is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Revisiting the COVID-19 vulnerability index in South Africa