Coronavirus Disease Outbreak: Assessing the Level of Preparedness for Containment in Healthcare Facilities in Nigeria: Qualitative Research Findings

Abstract

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has raised serious public health concerns globally. Cases keep increasing across countries: exposing the emergency-containing capability, level of preparedness, emergency disease prevention, and risk management alertness of various healthcare facilities in managing the crisis. Aim: to assess the level of preparedness for the containment of the COVID-19 disease outbreak across health-care facilities in Nigeria. Materials and Methods: Participants were the stakeholders within selected healthcare facilities. Data were collected via in-depth interviews using a list of 37 structured questions to assess the level of preparedness of the Nigerian health-care facilities in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were manually and thematically analysed using the constructivist variant of the grounded theory methodology. Results: Overall, the level of preparedness across the selected health facilities was estimated as average, as several facilities were fairly prepared while a few others were relatively unprepared for the COVID-19 pandemic containment. Conclusion: The COVID-19 virus disease outbreak can be said to be fairly contained by the Nigerian health system from the standpoint of the available mortality and incidence indices. Meanwhile, there are still loopholes around financial, structural, and material provisions which are essential needs for better and sustainable pandemic containment.