Community Pharmacists' Preparedness for COVID-19 Testing in Nigeria

Abstract

Background:The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control recently approved the use of Antigen based rapid diagnostic test kits for the diagnosis of COVID-19 in Nigeria, with the goal to scale up COVID-19 testing. Community Pharmacists can be mobilized to be part of meeting this goal, since they are the closest and most accessible healthcare practitioners in the communities. This study aimed at assessing the community pharmacist's knowledge, preparedness, and willingness to get involved in COVID-19 testing. Methods: A cross-sectional self-administered structured questionnaire based survey of 449 consenting community pharmacists across Nigeria between April and May 2020 was used for this study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were done with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences, with the level of significance set at <0.05. Results: Average knowledge of COVID-19 and its testing was displayed by 53.2% of the respondents, 336 (74.8%) stated that their pharmacies did not have a properly ventilated isolation room, and 401 (89.3%), were willing to be trained on how to use the test kits for COVID-19 testing. Community pharmacies that offered comprehensive laboratory services were better prepared for 2 COVID-19 testing (χ = 12.294, p = 0.000), and demographics of the respondents did not affect their 2 knowledge of COVID-19 and its testing (χ = 10.469, p = 0.106). Conclusion: Majority (53.2%) of the community pharmacists had average knowledge. Although, majority of the community pharmacies were not adequately prepared for COVID-19 testing, most of them were willing to be trained on how to use the test kits. The Government can explore this willingness by providing adequate training and equipment necessary for COVID-19 testing.