COMMUNITY AWARENESS, ADHERENCE TO S.O.P.S IN MINIMIZING THE SPREAD OF COVID-19
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- Introduction
This chapter presents background of the study, the problem statement, purpose, objectives of the study, research questions, study scope, justification of the study, significance, conceptual framework, as well as operational definition of key terms and concepts.
1.1 Background of the study
People who live in a community often have common interests and values. This is why organizations develop different ways of handling challenges of pandemics in line with the community’s interest and their way of life. Community awareness often refers to the degree that people generally know about each other, about social norms and people’s different roles within the community, and about issues that affect the community (Aldila, et al., 2020).
Community awareness is essential as it enable the community to reduce on their resentment towards specific laws that the government may have put in place. Having a proper community awareness is very critical towards achieving community acceptance of given laws and policies and this increases community participation towards their common cause, Community awareness as describe by Hill is the best way where in family elders recognize their role in the family& recognize their personal capabilities and strengths& appreciate their responsibilities in the community regarding a specific activity in the community (Prandi et al., 2020).
Awareness of any pandemic is very essential to the community as it enables the community to be prepared and provide the support to the vulnerable population to help in reducing the risk of the disease spreading further to other members. In early 2020, the COVID-19 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) pandemic shocked the world, almost bringing it to an unprecedented stop. The new coronavirus apparently started to spread in China during December 2019, before moving to Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea (first confirmed cases on 20 January 2020), then to the United States, Vietnam, Singapore , and, at the end of January 2020, to Australia, Nepal, Europe (first cases in France on 25 January 2020 and later in Germany, Finland, Italy, Malaysia, Canada, the Middle East, and other countries of the Western Pacific Region and South-East Asia Region, and (3) onwards to Russia, Africa, and Latin America. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. By 31 July 2020, COVID-19 had spread across 217+ countries and territories, with almost 17.1 million confirmed cases and 668,073 deaths. America then had confirmed 9.15 million cases, Europe 3.31 million, South-East Asia 2 million, Eastern Mediterranean 1.53 million, Africa 0.75 million, and the Western Pacific 0.31 million cases.
Awareness of the presence of covid-19 Pandemic has helped the community members in different communities to reduce on accept the S.O.Ps like Hand washing, putting on face masks, maintaining social disturbance without being rebellious to the law enforcers (MacPhail, et al., 2020).
According to (Paul & Peter, 2020) globally people are avoiding unnecessary travel and are trying to avoid inviting people over. Studies conducted in between 21st of March and 6th of April states that about 42% people said that they are trying to prevent shopping and are trying to stay at home as much as possible (Gina Gustavsson, 2020). Many researches have been conducted in this regard explaining the behavior of people in the pandemic. Researchers and even the general public are curious to know about the influence of community awareness on the adherence to COVID-19 pandemic standard operating procedures.
Owen (2020) indicates that there is currently a slight reduction on the COVID-19 spread because of the strict adherence to COVID-19 S.O.Ps by different communities for example in the Asian countries were the observance of S.O.Ps has been highly emphasized the reducing in the Cases has been very high. In order to ensure that the strict observance most of the business have been carried to an online platform so as to reduce on the chances of people get in contact and increase the spread of COVID-19. Historically, the world has successfully faced serious epidemics like Malaria, Small pox, Influenza, Cholera, Yellow fever, Leprosy, Ebola, swine flu etc. Right now, no matter the world has progressed so much but still some anomalies in human civilization exist. Like the humans have become so much sophisticated that they open themselves up to various trades, different eco systems, populations, and become more curious. As a result, they have become more vulnerable to catching strange diseases and this thing has paved the way towards the spread of most recent and life threatening COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately as time is progressing, this COVID-19 pandemic has started becoming a part of the history books (Walsh, 2020). In the effort of combating with COVID-19, a great tribute to the Public Healthcare Systems whose strategy and efforts has played a very effective role all over the world in decreasing the number of fatalities and this to large extend has been praised on the high level of community awareness globally Uganda inclusive.
1.2 Statement of the problem
According to WHO, (2021) 4,481,152 people have died so far from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as of August 26, 2021, however its rate of spread is one which is more faster than almost all the pandemics ever been in the world, as currently there more than 213,000,000 people who have contracted the Corona virus. Despite the high deaths numbers due to technology available there has been very high community awareness globally through the communication channels like social media (face book, you tube, Google plus), radios, television, and newspapers.
Currently in Uganda there has been 119,000 cases of corona virus with a total of 2,968 deaths, despite the government of Uganda continuous community awareness strategies the corona virus cases have been rising in the country. This therefore has made many researchers to question community awareness, adherence to S.O.P.S in minimizing the spread of Covid-19
1.3 General Objective
Community Awareness, adherence to S.O.P.s in minimizing the spread of COVID-19
1.4 Objectives
- To examine the role of self-management in minimizing the spread of COVID-19
- To determine the influence of self-motivation in minimizing the spread of COVID-19
- To investigate roles of Putting on a mask, washing Hands on Minimizing the spread of COVID-19
- To investigate the influence of culture on minimizing the spread of COVID-19
1.5 Research questions
- What is the role of self-management in minimizing the spread of COVID-19?
- What is the influence of self-motivation in minimizing the spread of COVID-19?
- What are the roles of Putting on a mask, washing Hands on minimizing the spread of COVID-19?
- What is the influence of culture on minimizing the spread of COVID-19
1.6 Scope of the study
This section will include the content, geographical, time scope.
1.6.1 Content scope
The study will concentrate on the variables of awareness, adherence, minimizing the spread of COVID-19.
1.6.2 The geographical scope
The study will be carried out in Banda, Kampala Uganda. .
1.6.3 Time scope
The period of data considered will be from 2020 to 2021.
1.7 significance of the study
The study will provide information regarding the role of self-management in minimizing the spread of COVID-19 in the community.
The study will provide information to the Government on the influence of self-motivation in minimizing the spread of COVID-19.
The study will also enable the future academicians find information regarding the roles of Putting on a mask, washing Hands on minimizing the spread of COVID-19.
The study will also provide necessary information regarding the influence of culture on minimizing the spread of COVID-19.
1.8 Conceptual frame work
IV
MV
REFERENCES
Aldila, D., Ndii, M.Z. and Samiadji, B.M., 2020. Optimal control on COVID-19 eradication program in Indonesia under the effect of community awareness. Math. Biosci. Eng, 17(6), pp.6355-6389.
Prandi, C., Monti, L., Ceccarini, C. and Salomoni, P., 2020. Smart campus: Fostering the community awareness through an intelligent environment. Mobile Networks and Applications, 25(3), pp.945-952.
MacPhail, V.J., Gibson, S.D. and Colla, S.R., 2020. Community science participants gain environmental awareness and contribute high quality data but improvements are needed: insights from Bumble Bee Watch. PeerJ, 8, p.e9141.
OBSERVATION CHECKLIST FOR ADULTS
| TICK IN THE APPROPRIATE BOX TO SELECT “YES” OR “NO” | YES | NO |
| People are using the mask | ||
| People are keeping social distance | ||
| Adults are washing their hands with soap and water as they enter into restaurants and when they leave | ||
| The number of people visiting crowded places has reduced | ||
| Most business people have utilities for washing hands on the door way | ||
| Majority of adults seem to be staying home due to the low numbers in the trading Centre | ||
| Social events no longer attract large numbers of people | ||
| The time for curfew is observed by most adults | ||
| People are cautious when meeting others | ||
| Restaurants No longer attract large numbers of people |
OBSERVATION CHECKLIST FOR CHILDREN
| TICK IN THE APPROPRIATE BOX TO SELECT “YES” OR “NO” | YES | NO |
| Children use face masks when leaving their homes | ||
| Children move with adults when moving outside their homes | ||
| Children are always afraid of meeting new people | ||
| Children have knowledge on the dangers of COVID-19 | ||
| children maintain a more than two meters away from others when outside | ||
| Children know how to wash their hands with soap and water | ||
| Children are not forced to wash their hands with soap and water | ||
| Children willingly wash their hands with soap and water | ||
| Children greet others by shaking hands | ||
| Children attend video halls |
QUESTION TWO
Historically, the world has successfully faced serious epidemics like Malaria, Small pox, Influenza, Cholera, Yellow fever, Leprosy, Ebola, swine flu etc. Right now, no matter the world has progressed so much but still some anomalies in human civilization exist. Like the humans have become so much sophisticated that they open themselves up to various trades, different eco systems, populations, and become more curious. As a result, they have become more vulnerable to catching strange diseases and this thing has paved the way towards the spread of most recent and life threatening COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately as time is progressing, this COVID-19 pandemic has started becoming a part of the history books (Walsh, 2020). In the series of combat with COVID-19, a great tribute to the Public Healthcare Systems whose strategy and efforts has played a very effective role all over the world in decreasing the number of fatalities.
In early 2020, the COVID-19 (caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus) pandemic shocked the world, almost bringing it to an unprecedented stop. The new coronavirus apparently started to spread in China during December 2019, before moving to Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea (first confirmed cases on 20 January 2020), then to the United States, Vietnam, Singapore , and, at the end of January 2020, to Australia, Nepal, Europe (first cases in France on 25 January 2020 and later in Germany, Finland, Italy, Malaysia, Canada, the Middle East, and other countries of the Western Pacific Region and South-East Asia Region, and (3) onwards to Russia, Africa, and Latin America. On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. By 31 July 2020, COVID-19 had spread across 217+ countries and territories, with almost 17.1 million confirmed cases and 668,073 deaths. America then had confirmed 9.15 million cases, Europe 3.31 million, South-East Asia 2 million, Eastern Mediterranean 1.53 million, Africa 0.75 million, and the Western Pacific 0.31 million cases.
There are more vaccine candidates simultaneously in the pipeline for COVID-19 than ever before for an infectious disease. All of them are trying to achieve the same thing – immunity to the virus, and some might also be able to stop transmission. They do so by stimulating an immune response to an antigen, a molecule found on the virus. In the case of COVID-19, the antigen is typically the characteristic spike protein found on the surface of the virus, which it normally uses to help it invade human cells and As of August 19, 2021, nearly 200 million people in the United States alone have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, vaccination among pregnant people remains low. Data show that only about 1 in every 4 pregnant people report vaccination, and certain groups have much lower uptake. This low uptake persists despite recent increases in COVID-19 cases in pregnant people. CDC recommends all people 12 years and older including people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future – get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Compared to non-pregnant people, pregnant and recently pregnant people are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, including illness that requires hospitalization, intensive care, a ventilator or special equipment to breathe, or illness that results in death. Having certain underlying medical conditions and other factors, including age, can further increase a pregnant person’s risk for developing severe COVID-19. Additionally, changes that occur in the body during pregnancy that increase the risk for severe illness can continue after pregnancy. Pregnant people with COVID-19 are also at increased risk for preterm birth and might be at increased risk for other poor pregnancy outcomes.
Vaccines provide the best protection against COVID-19. It is important for pregnant people and those who live with or visit them to take steps to protect themselves. New CDC data provide further evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people who are pregnant, including those early in pregnancy. Additionally, there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men. Many people have become pregnant after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, including some who got vaccinated during COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. If you have questions about getting vaccinated, talking with your healthcare professional may help, but is not required before vaccination. To find a vaccine provider near you, visit Vaccines.gov or your state or local public health department website.
A recent CDC study shows that, even though COVID-19 vaccination coverage among pregnant people has been increasing, Black and Hispanic women have the lowest vaccination coverage among all racial and ethnic groups. Similar results have been reported with other vaccinations during pregnancy.
