Evaluation of Covid-19 Prevention and Control Protocol Compliance Among Pupil’s in Ikenne Local Government Area, Ogun State

Abstract

In early December 2019, an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), occurred in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China. On January 30, 2020 the World Health Organization declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. On 26th January, President Mohammed Buhari released COVID-19 health. With the emergence of the second wave of COVID-19 parent/guardians, teachers, schools administrators and other stakeholders were to ensure full compliance with all COVID-19 protocols as released by NCDC and Government. Survey research design was used for the study. The population comprised of 481primary school students and teachers in the ten government and private owned primary schools in Ikenne Local Government of Ogun State. Total enumeration sampling technique was adopted. A structured and validated questionnaire was used to collect the data. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the constructs obtained was 0.893. The response rate was 89%. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. The finding showed that all the respondents were aware of COVID-19. This finding indicated that schools’ comply with Federal Ministry of Education guidelines on schools and learning facilities reopening after COVID-19 closures in Ogun State. The findings of this study revealed that the majority of the pupils had good adherence to COVID-19 prevention protocol as compared with the teachers who had poor compliance to COVID prevention protocol. Relative to other prevention strategies, wearing of facemask was the least implemented measure by the teachers. The findings revealed that the schools faced some of these challenges that hinder the effective implementation of the prevention protocol such as inadequate supply of hand washing soap and water, inadequate supply of hand sanitizers, inadequate classroom, inadequate enforcement of social distance and inadequate cleaning and disinfectant for cleaning of surface objects. Findings concluded that the schools complied with Federal Ministry of Education guidelines on schools and learning facilities reopening after COVID-19 closures in Ogun state, Nigeria to a great extent. The guideline incorporates preventive measures such as hand washing, social distancing, wearing of face masks to contain and minimize the spread of the virus. The compliance to Federal Ministry of Education guidelines on schools and learning facilities reopening after COVID-19 closures is the right direction toward reducing the transmission of the disease.