Review of Awareness and Mitigation of various Waves and Variants of COVID-19 Disease Pandemic in Nigeria

Abstract

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an emerging disease from the group of viruses causing severe acute respiratory diseases. It has become a major public health concern, having affected most countries in the world with wide-spread illness and death, disruption of socio-economic activities and psychological distress for bereaved families. Since it was first discovered in late December 2019 in Wuhan, China, it has spread to other countries in waves due to the mutation of the virus, despite unprecedented efforts to curb it using public health control measures. The inclusion of an emergency listing of vaccines by the World Health Organization is expected to reduce the severity of the infection and help achieve herd immunity in the communities. However, some of these measures like regular hand washing and use of hand sanitizers, physical distancing, coughing in bent elbows, use of face mask in public places, quarantining of exposed individuals and vaccination are resisted by some members of the public on account of conspiracy theories and socio-cultural factors. An empirical study in Rivers state shows Knowledge was assessed as great for 80 per cent of the time, decent for 50–79 per cent of the time, and poor for 50 per cent of the time. Radio jingles (86.7 %) and television commercials (74%) were the most prevalent sources of information regarding COVID-19. At the moment, the Nigerian government is adopting non-pharmacological and pharmacological mitigation strategies. These include coercive measures to ensure compliance with vaccination in order to protect the public from exposure to the virus, with varying degrees of success. The author recommended that public health education and preventive measures should be sustained by the government and other stakeholders until a positive behaviour change is achieved and the pandemic controlled.