What are the implications to public health practice?
- The results of this study will serve as an input for policy and
decision makers, to revise the current strategies and design better
programs which address in combating COVID-19 pandemic.
Introduction
Covid-19 is one of the varieties
of virus that causes sickness in humans. In December 2019, officials in
Wuhan, China, initially characterized the condition caused by the new
coronavirus COVID-19, later dubbed SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 was declared a
pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. By 2020,
the global spread had been rapid, with at least one case documented in
182 of 202 nations. However, as of January 28, 2020, there had been no
confirmed occurrences in Africa. In Ethiopia, FMoH confirmed the first
case of COVID-19 in Addis Ababa on March 13, 2020.[1-5]
Globally,
as of September 3 of 2021, there had been 218,946,836 and 4,539,723
COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths, respectively. In Africa, there have
been more than 5,689, 356 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 136,742 deaths.
Between 3 January 2020 and 3 September 2021, there were 310,994
confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Ethiopia, with 4,711 deaths.[6, 7]
Nations across the world have launched various Covid-19 prevention
measures, including restricted movement, quarantine, and nationwide
lockdown. Additionally, individual and community actions to improve hand
hygiene, physical distancing, and the use of face masks were also
implemented. Despite global implementation of such measures, the burden
of the pandemic has not been reduced significantly. Thus, a large-scale
awareness-creation campaign on prevention, including a vaccination
campaign across the globe, seems to be the only way out of this
epidemic.[8-11]
Regardless of the enormous national steps taken to battle the outbreak,
the success or failure of these initiatives is mostly determined by
public behavior. To prevent the spread of the disease, public compliance
with WHO and CDC recommended preventive measures is critical. The
public’s knowledge, attitude and practice of COVID-19 are likely to
influence compliance to suggested prevention measures. [12-14]
Therefore, public awareness and practice of prevention measures are
critical in combating pandemics. Thus, the aim of this study was to
assess the status of the level of knowledge, attitude, practice, and
determinants toward COVID-19 recommended prevention measures among the
general population of Harar, Eastern Ethiopia, in 2021.