A Preliminary Assessment of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Knowledge and Perceptions in Nigeria

Peter O OLAPEGBA; Olusola AYANDELE; Samson Olowo KOLAWOLE; Rotimi OGUNTAYO; Joshua Chiroma GANDI; Abdullahi Lawal DANGIWA; Iboro Friday Akpan OTTU; Steven Kator IORFA

To prevent further spread of the virus, civil societies and government agencies embarked on enlightenment campaigns for good hygiene and social distancing. Temperature screening was conducted at airports and those returning from countries with numerous confirmed cases of COVID-19 were implored to self-isolate. The NCDC in association with State governments also began tracing and tracking of possible victims and their contacts. On March 18, 2020, the Lagos State government suspended all gatherings above fifty people for four weeks and ordered all lower and middle level public officers to stay-at-home (Ewodage, 2020) . Similarly, the Federal government, on March 30, 2020 introduced various containment strategies such as closing of the national borders and airspace, schools, worship centers and other public places, canceling of mass gathering events and placing the Federal Capital Territory, Lagos and Ogun states on lock down for an initial period of fourteen days (Radio Nigeria, 2020) . Covid-19 testing laboratories were set up in Lagos, Abuja and Irrua in Edo State while State governments opened isolation centres and imposed dawn to dust curfews in their territories.