Preliminary Survey on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices about the COVID-19 Pandemic among Residents in North Central Nigeria

A preliminary survey on the knowledge, attitude, and practice of the COVID-19 pandemic among residence in North Central Nigeria, was conducted. An anonymous electronic network sampling survey designed by e-survey was employed. The result showed that on the level of knowledge and practice, 76.83% opined that people may be sick for 1-14 days without developing the symptoms. On the viral transmission, 94.41% agreed that the transmission of the virus can be through direct contact with contaminated surfaces through eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as 78.35%, responded that the virus doesn't penetrate the skin. More so 92.04% of the respondents showed that older and sick people are more vulnerable to the disease with 98.86% showing that the most common symptoms may include fever, tiredness, dry cough, and sometimes difficulty in breathing. Only 24.43% asserted that COVID-19 cannot be transmitted through social gatherings, going put often, making direct physical contact with people. Meanwhile, 21.02% showed COVID-19 is a punishment for immoral behavior. On the rate of the outbreak, 94.32% said it is scary. Only 55.11% asserted approval of the control approach by the government. However, 82.29% would agree with the response of the masses to government measures to control the spread. On the way forward, 98.87% advised the need for more research and 87.08% would approve of vaccination against the disease. This implies that the respondents have a good level of knowledge and practice about COVID-19 and necessary adjustments are needed to control or manage the spread of the pandemic.


INTRODUCTION
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a disease that is caused by a new and severe type of coronavirus known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Hafeez et al., 2020). Over 7 million people have been infected globally with over three hundred thousand deaths and counting as a result of COVID-19 infection which started unprecedentedly in December 2019 in the Wuhan district of China (Worldometer, 2020). In Africa, 95,482 cases are confirmed so far while in Nigeria; over six thousand people are being infected as of the time of compiling this report (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2020).
The viral infection has been said to be without cure creating a rapidly spreading pandemic (Andersen et al., 2020), while the peak is yet uncertain (Djalante et al., 2020).
Researchers have been pulling from various pools of resources searching for ways to end the ravaging plague (Ebenhardt et al., 2020). Most treatment for the disease so far is largely based on the management of the symptoms pending on the strength of the immune system and or the presence of underlying infections or diseases (Felsenstein et al., 2020). Nonetheless, it is not an overstatement that the pandemic has affected every aspect of the life of the world inhabitants. The devastating effects cut across humans of all ages, irrespective of their class, race, religion, and education to mention but a few (Bhagavathula et al., 2020). This happens in various ways as different individuals approach it from different perspectives depending on their knowledge, practice, and attitude. In Nigeria, for example, preventive efforts are being proscribed and enforced by the various authorities to curtail the level of spread of the plague, it has also brought along some consequences among the people across the various backgrounds (Olapegba et al., 2020).
Such a large effect could affect people's response to treatment, management, or control of the ravaging disease (Laviano, 2020). More so, it could also help authorities in managing the post-pandemic era until the world fully recovers as the pandemic has the potential of modifying world view as well as the culture of daily living. The study also supported Richards (2016)

Preparation and participants
In April 2020, we enrolled a familial cluster involving the COVID-19 survey to collect a database on an individual's perspective regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in north- Results were computed in arithmetic average (Ø), standard deviation (±), and weighting (%).

Survey respondents
Following the arrangement we had earlier with the esurvey admin, the survey was brought to completion on May 16 th , 2020. We received responses from 204 respondents as of May 16 th , 2020, which was the data cutoff collection date for this study.

Socio-demographic factors
The respondents were aged between 15-60 years; they  Figure 1 to   (Garfin et al., 2020). This is because most likely they have access to electricity, as well as social media gadgets that require the use of networks.
Also, they are more exposed to seeing the reality of practical cases as most isolation centers are located in towns (Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, 2020).    (Dubey et al., 2020). The occupation as well as the type of social media most often used by the various respondents that participated in the survey are completely visualized in Figure 4 and Figure 5.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We hereby acknowledge the contribution of all respondents who voluntarily answered the e- questionnaire. An appreciation also goes to Mr. Gideon Oche Ehoche for referring to the online survey application used.