Residents’ risk perceptions on Covid-19 and the impacts of social distancing in Nigeria

Babatunde Femi Akinyode

doi:10.47785/urbana.2.2020

Abstract

COVID-19 or Coronavirus, a recent devastating and marauding infectious disease, is indeed a worldwide problem and has become a public health emergency of international concern. This study aimed to examine the residents’ perception on COVID-19 and the impacts of social distancing in Nigeria. Quantitative technique was adopted in the study and the data was generated with the aid of computer based online questionnaire administration among 1567 respondents. Different analytical techniques such as mean and standard deviation scores, One-way ANOVA-test, average index and correlation analysis were performed. The study reveals positive relationship among factors that influence risk perception on COVID-19. Pearson Correlation analysis reveals strong relationship between residents’ worry about COVID-19 and lockdown for the control of coronavirus disease. High residents’ risk perception in Nigerian cities designates that COVID-19 is perceived as a health challenge and encourages most residents to maintain social distancing without considering numerous repercussions. Serious and urgent attention to alleviate these repercussions among the populace is of necessity.

Highlights

COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) is the disease caused by the virus severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-COV-2 (Cortegiani, Ingoglia, Ippolito, Giarratano, & Einav, 2020; Deslatte, 2020), a new type of coronavirus
Recommendations and Conclusion: The threat of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the health of the residents with inadequate health care facilities resulted from emerging infectious diseases requires urgent attention
The residents without appropriate measures with inadequate health care facilities are expose to the risk of infection with COVID19

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease-2019) is the disease caused by the virus SARS-COV-2 (Cortegiani, Ingoglia, Ippolito, Giarratano, & Einav, 2020; Deslatte, 2020), a new type of coronavirus. Some other common members of the coronavirus family include cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). This group of viruses often connected with the crossover of animal viruses to humans. The new virus has caused a Pandemic; it is extremely contagious and can lead to death (Cortegiani et al, 2020; Zhu et al, 2020). It has spread throughout the world and become public health emergency of international concern. Despite reports from several countries on the wide spread of the disease and many sequel studies from various perspectives, residents’ risk perception on the pandemic is yet to be given any serious attention. (Singh et al, 2020)

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