Perception of COVID-19 and acceptance of vaccination in Delta State Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Background: With more than 80 million recorded cases and over 1.7 million deaths at the time of this research, providing safe effective vaccine to curb the ravaging COVID-19 has emerged a global priority. Public attitude towards COVID-19 and interventions like vaccination varies considerably as the access to knowledge. This study looked at knowledge of COVID-19 and its impact on acceptance of the upcoming vaccination in Delta State, Nigeria. Method: Cross-sectional survey of 401 participants from three Local Government Areas in Delta North, Central, and South Senatorial Districts carried out in December 2020. Data collected by Google forms was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS. Results: For COVID-19 knowledge, 75.6% of respondents were aware of the cause and 81.2% had knowledge of mode of transmission. For preventive measures, 77.6% practice social distancing, 65.6% hand washing, 61.6% use of hand sanitizers and 67.6% wearing of masks. Also, 76.6% knew about the vaccines in development, 53.9% were aware of Nigeria's interest in rolling out the vaccine and 48.6% were willing to accept the vaccine. A statistically significant relationship at p < 0.05 was observed between vaccine acceptance and gender, religious affiliation, education, employment status, income, knew a person with COVID-19, self-reported susceptibility to COVID-19, and individual agreement with effectiveness of government COVID-19 interventions. Conclusion: The population had a good knowledge of COVID-19 and the vaccine, although more than half were not willing to accept it. This calls for interventions to encourage trust and compliance as the government sets out to invest in vaccine rollout.