Knowledge and Beliefs towards Universal Safety Precautions to flatten the curve during Novel Coronavirus Disease (nCOVID-19) Pandemic among general Public in India: Explorations from a National Perspective

Sai Krishna Gudi; Krishna Undela; Rajesh Venkataraman; Uday Venkat Mateti; Manik Chhabra; Sanath Nyamagoud; Komal Krishna Tiwari

Generally, educating the public with an emphasis on personal hygiene, such as washing hands, would take a lot of time and effort, especially in developing countries such as India. In a large cross-sectional comparative study conducted in Bangladesh from 2006 to 2011, including participants from 50 sub-districts inferred that there exists a significant gap between perceptions and practice of proper handwashing behaviours among their study participants. It also found that handwashing behaviour before eating food was lower, and unfortunately, only 8% of their study participants stated that they use soap for washing their hands at the baseline. It also noticed that handwashing knowledge and practices were relatively lower before cooking, serving and eating food [26] . Furthermore, socioeconomic status, including education, have shown a positive association with handwashing, which are similar to our current study findings. During outbreaks such as COVID-19, information regarding safety measures should be selflessly promoted by the news channels, print media, radio stations, and social media, as almost every individual relates to either of these platforms at some point in a day. Around three fourth of respondents in a descriptive cross-sectional study conducted in Nigeria have stated that they have acquired good handwashing measures by watching health education messages from social media, newspapers and radio channels [27] .