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

is the (which was not peer-reviewed) The copyright holder for this preprint . https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03. 31.20047126 doi: medRxiv preprint the study participants was 28.8 ± 10.9 years, where more than half of the participants belong to the age category <25 years. Sex was equally distributed among the participants, while more than 90% of them had either doctoral (28.4%), post-graduate (32.9%) or under-graduate (30.1%) degree as their educational background. The majority of the participants were professional job holders (45%) and then followed by the students (32%), while around 40% of the study participants belong to the upper-middle economic class. All other socio-demographic characteristics are detailed in Table 1 . Knowledge towards universal safety precautions: Although more than two-thirds of the study participants provided the correct response, the rest of the 30% were not aware of the ideal length of time to wash hands in preventing the infection. Surprisingly, around half of the participants were not aware of the ideal strength of the alcohol that a hand-sanitizer should contain to be used during outbreaks, while more than two-thirds of the participants were not known about the ideal distance to be maintained as part of social distancing measures. Around three-fourth and two-fifth of the participants were not aware of the quarantine and isolation procedures that are usually followed during outbreaks. However, the majority of the participants (i.e., 84%, 77% & 94%) are knowledgeable about the self-isolation time period, type of the face mask to be used, and social distancing procedures, respectively. The rest of the information about the knowledge of the general public towards USPs are detailed in Table 2 . Furthermore, correct responses for the respective questions with their 95% confidence intervals are represented in Figure 1 . believe that maintaining good personal hygiene, washing hands frequently using soap, avoiding handshaking behaviour and avoiding placing fingers in eyes, nose and mouth would prevent the spread of the infection. While more than 96% of the participants believe that adhering to social distancing measures and staying at home would be a good practice in combating the spread.