Background: COVID-19 pandemic has worldwide social-economic effect. However,there’s paucity of knowledge in the nature and severity of burn injuries before and during Covid-19 pandemic era.
Objectives: To determine the difference in burn injuries witnessed before and during COVID-19 pandemic period
Design: Descriptive retrospective study covering the period between 12th March 2018 to 12th March 2021. This encompassed the pre-Covid-19 era as well as the Covid-19 pandemic era. Data from all burn’s unit/wards spanning 3 years was retrieved. Data
was cross checked and only complete and accurate data was incorporated. Data analysis  as done using chi square test and Fisher’s exact test. P-value was set at 0.05.
Results: There was generally an increase in the number of patients who sustained thermal and electrical burns during Covid-19 pandemic period. More males sustained burn injuries in the Covid-19 pandemic period, accounting for 56.6% of all burn injuries compared to their female counterparts (43.4%). This was statistically significant (P= <0.005)
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that there was a significant increase in thermal and electric burns during the covid-19 pandemic period. These burns involved
all the various age groups especially the preschool going children. The current study postulated probable explanations of this increase in thermal and electric burns during
Covid 19 pandemic period to be due to the forced lockdowns, children left unattended to or under insufficient supervision.
Key words: Thermal burns, Electrical burns, Covid-19, burns unit