Social distancing and preventive practices of government employees in response to COVID-19 in Ethiopia

Abstract

Public health and social interventions are critical to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Ethiopia has implemented a variety of public health and social measures to control the pandemic. This study aimed to assess social distancing and public health preventive practices of government employees in response to COVID-19. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,573 government employees selected from 46 public institutions located in Addis Ababa. Data were collected from 8th to 19th June 2020 using a paper-based self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with outcome variables (perceived effectiveness of facemask wearing to prevent coronavirus infection, and COVID-19 testing). Majority of the participants reported facemask wearing (96%), avoiding close contact with people including handshaking (94.8%), consistently followed government recommendations (95.6%), frequent handwashing (94.5%), practiced physical distancing (89.5%), avoided mass gatherings and crowded places (88.1%), restricting movement and travelling (71.8%), and stayed home (35.6%). More than 80% of the participants perceived that consistently wearing a facemask is highly effective in preventing coronavirus infection. Respondents from Oromia perceived less about the effectiveness of wearing facemask in preventing coronavirus infection (adjusted OR = 0.27, 95% CI:0.17–0.45). About 19% of the respondents reported that they had ever tested for COVID-19. Respondents between 40–49 years old (adjusted OR = 0.41, 95% CI:0.22–0.76) and 50–66 years (adjusted OR = 0.43, 95% CI:0.19–0.95) were less likely tested for coronavirus than the younger age groups. Similarly, respondents from Oromia were less likely to test for coronavirus (adjusted OR = 0.26, 95% CI:0.12–0.56) than those from national level. Participants who were sure about the availability of COVID-19 testing were more likely to test for coronavirus. About 57% of the respondents perceived that the policy measures in response to the pandemic were inadequate. The findings showed higher social distancing and preventive practices among the government employees in response to COVID-19. Rules and regulations imposed by the government should be enforced and people should properly apply wearing facemasks, frequent handwashing, social and physical distancing measures as a comprehensive package of COVID-19 prevention and control strategies.

Social distancing practice and associated factors in response to COVID-19 pandemic at West Guji Zone, Southern Ethiopia, 2021: A community based cross-sectional study

“…Likewise, respondents who had less perceived severity and low perceived self-efficacy were less likely to have positive attitude than their counter parts. This is congruent to a study report done at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [ 20 ] and study conducted at Brazil on Health belief model for coronavirus infection risk determinants [ 35 ]. The possible explanation might be due to the reason that having perception of greater severity may lead the community to seek health services earlier.…”

“…On the other hand, the study result revealed that nearly three in-five (62.4%) of respondents never avoided non-essential use of public transport. This is comparable to study done in Iran (61.8%) [ 27 ], South Korea [ 38 ] and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia [ 20 ]. In our study more than five in-six, (84.9%) of respondents maintained non-contact greeting.…”

“…The possible explanation could due the difference in socio-demographic characteristics and study period. However, our study result is lower than a study conducted at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where, 89.5% of respondents practiced physical distancing [ 20 ], Italy 85.6% [ 37 ], Southern Ethiopia 65% [ 21 ]. The possible explanation for this lower practice could be due to the participant’s behavior of adopting the newly introduced rules and regulations.…”

“…The prevalence of Positive attitude, 298(72.7%) [95%CI:68.8%-76.6%] found in this study is comparable to a study done at Bangladeshi [ 23 ] and Paraguay’s [ 31 ] reported a desired attitude of the population towards COVID-19. However, the result is lower than studies conducted in Ethiopia [ 20 , 21 ]. This might be the difference in study participant’s characteristics, where the above studies majorities of the respondents were governmental employers.…”

“…On the other hand, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control technical report it was estimated that if social distancing had been conducted one week, two weeks, or three weeks earlier in China, the number of COVID-19 cases could have been halted by 66%, 86%, and 95%, respectively [ 12 ]. A study conducted among government employees in Ethiopia revealed that, more than nine-in-ten (94.8%) avoids handshaking; whereas 89.5% and 88.1% practiced physical distancing and avoided mass gatherings and crowded places respectively [ 20 ]. Another study conducted in the same area found that the majority of respondents had reflected good knowledge, positive attitude and low magnitude of practice regarding COVID-19 prevention activities [ 21 ].…”