Background: In February 2020, Nigeria reported its index COVID-19 case which began the cycle of transmission within Nigeria. In response, the presidential task force provided guideline for the prevention and management of the pandemic used across sectors, enforced compliance, and declared a lock-down on March 30, 2020 to curb the spread of the virus. COVID-19 disrupted the health system, strained the health workforce, disrupted the supply chain, service delivery. Marie Stopes ensured last mile distribution of commodities, and provided clinical support and built resilience in the front-line health workers. As a result, 2,343 public health facilities, 168 community-based delivery Network of Marie Stopes Ladies; 221 social franchise; 3 MSION centres of excellence and 23 mobile outreach teams remained operational to meet the rising need for sexual and reproductive health services. Data reporting rate was comparable (87% before COVID 19 and 88% during the lock-down).
Method: A pre and post lockdown assessment of service delivery in Marie Stopes supported health facilities was carried out using the service statistics reported by reported for three months before the lockdown (December 2019 to Feb 2020) and three months during the lock-down (March 2020 to May 2020) was retrieved from MSI database for routine data. The data was analyzed and the proportions were compared. The impact of the services delivered was analyzed using MSI Impact2 model
Results: 772, 628 clients accessed family planning services during the lock-down compared to 634,000 three months prior. The mix of FP methods utilized included permanent, long-acting reversible and short-term methods. This is estimated to have averted 793,601 unintended pregnancies, 3,968 maternal death, 19,781, child deaths, 279, 538 unsafe abortions.
Conclusion: Sustaining the delivery of family planning service in uncertain times requires cohesive system strengthening for emergency preparedness, effective partnership, and resilience building.
