Collaboration in handling COVID-19 toward people in poverty line: study case in Makassar

Objective: The large-scale social distancing policy conducted twice was unable to reduce the rate of development of COVID-19 widespread in Makassar, yet it increased. One of the causes was that social awareness is still lacking especially for people in the poverty line. This study attempts to describe the social behavior of people in poverty line toward COVID-19 case in Makassar. Method: This research is a qualitative descriptive study based on the case. The data analysis was under taken qualitatively. Results: The results revealed thatthe limited understanding of people in poverty line about COVID-19 and health protocols makes their behavior indifferent and disobedient to health protocols. In addition, the government’s top-down approach to deal with COVID-19 pandemic was ineffective. However, bottom-up collaborative interventions need to be carried out through a group approach to gain an understanding of the COVID-19 health protocol, especially for people in poverty line and other vulnerable groups.