ISRRT_COVID-19_book

pronounced restrictions and indicated that the residences should also be filled up to the 60%
capacity.
Impact on Research projects.
The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted on research projects which were conducted either for
degree or for non-degree purposes. This further relates to experimental and nonexperimental
research projects. Experimental research on animals or the ones that were
conducted in the chemistry or anatomical pathology laboratories needed constant checking
and monitoring by the researchers. In the advent of the lock-down restrictions, people
needed special permission to travel and enter certain premises. There was great risk of not
completing the research because of the lockdown. The researchers could not travel to the
laboratories to carry out their experiments as planned.
Regarding the non-experimental research projects, challenges also related to the data
collection. Proposals were approved in some instances for hand delivery of questionnaires,
personal interviews or even observations of research subjects in their natural settings.
Research participants like patients in a particular clinical setting could not be accessed due to
the need to maintain social distancing. Urgent applications were then made to the research
ethics committees to allow for adaptation of the data collection methods and procedures.
This was fortunately granted for most projects. For example, personal interviews could be
changed to on-line or telephonic interviews, hand delivery of questionnaires could be
changed to email or on-line distribution. Even with this adaptation, researchers still had
another hurdle, which related to the availability of resources and the ability of some members
of the community to continue with the participation in the data collection process. The other
possible impact would be the response rate. Hand delivered questionnaires and face-to-face
interviews tend to yield better response than the mailed questionnaires and telephonic
interviews. One would say the personal touch and verbal communication tend to contribute
to better response rates.
Intake and registration challenges in 2021.
The COVID-19 impacted the start of the academic year. The COVID-19 pandemic had impact
on all educational sectors, including the basic education. Basic education refers to school
years up to matric. The 2020 matriculants were forced to take their final examinations at the
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