Key ethical issues encountered during COVID-19 research: a thematic analysis of perspectives from South African research ethics committees.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateThis study was approved by the Health Research Ethics Committee at Stellenbosch University (N20/10/062_COVID-19) and the Faculty of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Cape Town (HREC REF 045/2021) and was guided by the Declaration of Helsinki’s ethical principles. All participants provided written informed consent prior to taking part in this study. Consent for publicationNot applicable. Competing interestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests."

"Funding We gratefully acknowledge funding support from an NIH Fogarty Grant: D43 TW01511-01- Advancing Research Ethics Training in Southern Africa (ARESA): Leadership Program and National Human Genome Research Institute of National Institutes of Health Award number UO1HG008222 and the World Health Organisation, Ethics Support in COVID-19."