The current survey is a baseline survey conducted in settings targeted for malaria elimination in specific geographies in Ethiopia. Baseline malaria information gathered at the pre-elimination phase is essential to understand the community-level transmission and measure the next outcomes towards the elimination goal. Baseline survey results enable programs (or program managers/interested people) to anticipate achievements and changes in the future regarding interventions administered for malaria prevalence reduction in the communities [21]. A baseline survey on malaria epidemiology and intervention coverage at the community level in the elimination-planned Districts would help to know the status in terms of parasite distribution, intervention coverage, and community awareness to malaria and control approaches, and to evaluate the success of activities exerted for elimination. Therefore, this study was conducted to measure the magnitude of Plasmodium infections at the community level in the initial phase of malaria elimination in the targeted Districts and Regions in Ethiopia.
Study area and period
This study was conducted from October to December 2018 in selected Districts targeted for malaria elimination in Ethiopia. Ministry of Health (MOH) launched malaria elimination in 239 Districts with low annual parasites among the five Regional states (Amhara, South Nations and Nationalities, Oromia, Tigray, and Harari Regions) and Dire-Dawa city administration. Ethiopia National Strategic Plan (NSP) 2017-2020 has stratified the country's malaria situation based on Annual Parasite Incidence (API) per 1000 population. Accordingly, four broad strata have been identified. They are malaria-free (API = 0), low (API= > 0 to ≤10 cases/1000 person-years), moderate (API= > 10 to < 50 cases), and high-transmission (API = ≥50 cases/1000 person-years) strata. The current assessment was commenced in these low-to-moderate malaria transmission Districts in Ethiopia as shown in Fig. 1.

### Language ###
English

### Assessment ###
The text mentions a specific time period when the study was conducted, which could be of interest to researchers or health officials.

### Query ###
From start to finish, give me the dates of the Ethiopian malaria survey.
From start to finish, give me the dates of the Ethiopian malaria survey.