Wear Facemasks Research Articles

You Wear Face Mask, I Keep Social Distance: Comparing COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors between China and the United States

Prior research suggests that collectivism predicts international consumers’ compliance with COVID-19 preventive behaviors. However, across two cross-sectional studies, we demonstrated that Chinese consumers were more likely to wear face masks and stay at home; while U.S. consumers were more likely to wash hands and keep a social distance. Indeed, when U.S. consumers perceived the pandemic to be more severe and were more health-conscious, they were more likely to comply with COVID-19 preventive behaviors than the Chinese. Adopting a multifactorial model, we offer a holistic view of consumer responses to COVID-19. We also provide insights for marketers and policymakers.

Hybrid Learning (HL) in Higher Education: The Design and Challenges

The covid-19 outbreak is spreading in the world fast, forcing states worldwide to transform into digital services, including education services. This study aims to investigate the design and challenges of Islamic universities in implementing HL. Hybrid Learning (HL) denotes a mixture of face-to-face (FTF) learning in the classroom with online learning through application assistance. In this study, the researcher used a qualitative descriptive method using open questions, documentation, and observation. In collecting data, researchers used critical reflection and triangulation. The study's results delineate that the HL design in Islamic universities in West Nusa Tenggara is imposed with FTF and online learning. Online learning design is prescribed using various features such as maximizing various applications, including zoom applications, LMS, Google Classroom, Whatsapp Group, etc. Students who savor online learning are students in the fifth semester and up, while students who undergo the FTF learning system are freshman and second-year students. This arrangement is because students in that semester have never felt the stall and orientation of lectures. Meanwhile, students who can make online appointments and FTF are those who are undergoing the final project. The challenges in HL include lecturers having difficulty constructing learning tools, students' low motivation and willingness to learn, unstable and unevenly distributed internet access, and students' economic conditions who experience difficulties. In FTF, lecturers and students have difficulty interacting because government policies prohibit crowds, social distancing, and must wear facemasks. Therefore, students, parents, and colleges must synergize to make the HL process successful. Keywords: hybrid learning, design, challenges, FTF, online learning, higher education

Wearing Facemasks and Maintaining Social Distancing during COIVD-19 among people in the U.S.

This survey of 502 U.S. residents explored how people practiced wearing facemasks and maintaining social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Health Benefit Model (HBM), the study found that perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived self-efficacy, perceived benefit, and perceived barrier were significant predictors of wearing facemasks while perceived severity, perceived self-Efficacy, and perceived benefit were significant predictors for maintaining social distancing. While women and people with higher education and higher income were more likely to wear facemasks than others, people of 40 years of age and above and those with higher income tended to maintain social distancing more than others. Participants did not have COVID-19 were more likely to wear facemask and maintain social distancing than those who already had the disease.

Why Face Masks Should not be Imposed on the Public Again: A Review Article

Viral epidemics of acute respiratory infections pose a global threat. Influenza outbreaks occur almost every year. Specifically, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), emerged in late 2019. This unprecedented event resulted in many countries requiring masks in public spaces to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, the early and previous systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) found that medical/surgical masks did not appear to reduce respiratory viral infections. Also, N95 respirators did not provide superior protection over surgical masks against viral infections or influenza-like infections among healthcare workers (HCWs), although N95 respirators theoretically provide better protection. This led to the recommendation not to wear facemasks as potential benefits are limited, and there is a risk of self-contamination if misused. However, with the ongoing spread of SARS-CoV-2, several health authorities suddenly shifted their recommendations and advised the general public to wear masks, with some governments even mandating it. By July 2023, the health-protective benefits of wearing facemasks are still conflicting, and debate over the idea of a mask mandate is ongoing. Therefore, this review aims to discuss ten reasons why face masks should not be imposed on the public again, which include the functional weaknesses of facemasks, lack of justification for the sudden change in the recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the effectiveness of facemasks in the community and among HCWs based on the systematic reviews of the RCTs, their effectiveness based on the RCTs, the effectiveness of N95 respirators versus surgical masks in protecting from acute respiratory infection based on the systematic reviews, their potential harms, the poor quality of most masks used by the public, their misuse, the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic despite masking, and the importance of acknowledgment of the rights of people in wearing masks or not.

The impact of wearing facemask on COPD patients: A protocol of a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a common, irreversible but preventable disease characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms. The mortality rate of COPD is predicted to reach 5.4 million by the year 2060. Despite its heavy burden on healthcare expenditure worldwide, only 15% of cases are medically identified. The potential benefits of facemask-wearing for COPD patients remain a topic of debate. We will conduct a systematic review of all randomized trials and non-randomized controlled trials to evaluate the impact of facemasks on COPD patients. Our review will be based on literature obtained through a comprehensive search strategy across multiple electronic databases, including the Cochrane Library, Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, the Chinese Biomedical Database (SinoMed), and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), with no restrictions on language or date of publication. Two independent researchers will extract and assess all relevant data using pre-designed data extraction forms. The included studies will be assessed using the Cochrane RoB2 tool and the suggested risk of bias criteria proposed by the Effective Practice and Organization of Care reviews group of the Cochrane collaboration. The quality of evidence will be assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. We will use Review Manager 5.4 software for statistical analysis. In the context of COVID-19, it is important for COPD patients to wear facemasks. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the impact of facemasks on the physiology and activity of COPD patients. PROSPERO registration number CRD42022326265.

Effect of Wearing Face Masks During Exercise on Pulmonary Function in Healthy Non-Athlete Young Men During the Covid-19 Epidemic: Cloth Masks vs. Medical Masks

Background and Objectives One of the safety methods to prevent the spread of Covid-19 is to wear face masks. The aim of the current research was to compare the effect of wearing cloth vs. medical masks during exercise on lung function in healthy non-athlete young men during the Covid-19 epidemic. Subjects and Methods In this quasi-experimental research, 40 healthy men (mean age: 29.40 years, mean height: 175.30 cm, mean weight: 73.37 kg, and mean body mass index: 23.56 kg/m2) were selected by purposive sampling method and randomly allocated into 4 groups: 1- combined exercises + medical mask, 2-combined exercises + cloth mask, 3- combined exercises, and 4- control. Pulmonary function was measured using a spirometer. The training intervention included three sessions of combined training (aerobic-resistance) continued for eight weeks. Statistical analysis involved paired sample t-tests, analysis of covariance, and Benferroni's post hoc test. Results A significant increase in tidal volume (VT), vital capacity (VC), total lung capacity (TLC), and peak expiratory flow (PEF) was observed after exercise training (P <0.01). However, using medical or cloth masks led to a significant decrease in VT, VC, TLC and PEF indices compared to the activity group not wearing masks (P <0.01). Other results also showed that there is no significant difference between cloth and medical masks in terms of the pulmonary indices of the healthy young men studied (P>0.05). Conclusion The results of this research show that wearing masks during exercise reduces lung function by increasing airway resistance.

Factors associated with wearing a facemask in shops in England following removal of a legal requirement to do so during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We aimed to identify psychological factors associated with the use of facemasks in shops in England following removal of legal requirements to do so, and to compare associations with and without legal restrictions. Repeated cross-sectional online surveys (n ≈ 2000 adults) between August 2020 and April 2022 (68,716 responses from 45,682 participants) using quota sampling. The outcome measure was whether those who had visited a shop for essentials in the previous seven days reported always having worn a facemask versus sometimes or not at all. Psychological predictor variables included worry, perceived risk and severity of COVID-19 and the perceived effectiveness of facemasks. Socio-demographic variables and measures of clinical vulnerability were also measured. For the period following removal of legal restrictions, multivariable regression was used to assess associations between the primary outcome variable and predictors adjusting for socio-demographic and clinical vulnerability measures. The analysis was repeated including interactions between psychological predictors and presence versus absence of legal restrictions. Worry about COVID-19, beliefs about risks and severity of COVID-19 and effectiveness of facemasks were substantially and independently associated with the use of facemasks. Removal of legal obligations to wear facemasks was associated with a 25% decrease in wearing facemasks and stronger associations between psychological predictors and wearing facemasks. Legal obligations increase rates of wearing a facemask. Psychological factors associated with wearing a facemask could be targets for interventions aiming to alter rates of wearing a facemask. These interventions may be more effective when there are no legal obligations to wear a face covering in place.

“Excuse me, could you please put on your mask?”: An investigation into the influence of face covering regulations on restaurant customer attitudes and behaviors

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic many individuals have been hesitant to wear facemasks. This represents a safety issue for both customers and workers in the foodservice industry. Yet, to date there is a dearth of empirical research assessing resultant customer attitudes and behaviors related to mask wearing hesitancy in restaurants. This study addresses this gap by testing a reactance theory-based model. Data was collected via MTurk and results were analyzed using SmartPLS. Findings indicate reactance proneness and magnitude to which mask wearing threatens freedom positively influenced respondents’ reactance and reactance negatively influenced attitudes toward restaurants with a mask policy. Implications for theory and practice are discussed in detail.

PATIENT’S PERCEPTION ABOUT CROSS-INFECTION PREVENTION IN NISHTER INSTITUTE OF DENTISTRY (NID), MULTAN, PAKISTAN

Cross-contamination is the transmission of microbial agents from one subject to another. It can be spread from individual to individual or through infected agents. The source of cross-infection can be saliva, blood, body secretions, infected instruments with blood, and necrotic tissue debris. Every year lives are lost because of the spread of infections in hospitals becomes a serious cause of world public health issues. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, a consecutive sampling technique was applied in the periodontology department of Nishter Institute of Dentistry, Multan. 450 participants completed a questionnaire. Self-administered close-ended questionnaire in the English language was used and used local language to familiarize with the questionnaire. Results of the study revealed that 68 – 89% of the participants had a satisfactory level of knowledge about infection and infection prevention and most of them were well educated. 239 participants perceived that AIDS and Hepatitis can be transmitted during dental treatment. Regarding self-reported practice, most of the participants were aware of the fact that sterilized instruments should be used during dental treatment. 89.8% of participants stated that dentists should wear gloves and facemasks to prevent cross-infection from dentist to patient and vice versa. There was a statistically significant difference between occupation and personal protective equipment. There was enough knowledge and awareness of patients presented to the periodontology department of Nishter Institute of Dentistry regarding the infections which can spread in dental clinics like hepatitis and AIDS. There is an increased need in enhancing the awareness of the patients through social media, and also a need to provide knowledge of patients about cross-infection and how can it be prevented through educational programs both for the patients and service providers. It can also be done through awareness campaigns in different shopping places and educational institutes and public places. Key Words: Infection control guidelines, Personal protective equipment, Health care workers, World Health Organization, Centre of Disease Control

Comparison of the skeletodental effects of miniscrew-anchored and tooth-anchored facemask treatment in growing patients with skeletal class III malocclusions.

This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the skeletal and dental effects of the miniscrew-anchored facemask in skeletal Class III growing patients and compare them with those of conventional tooth-anchored facemasks. Retrospectively a total of 50 patients with skeletal Class III (mean ANB: -1.12°) were investigated and divided into two groups according to the treatment modality. Twenty-five patients were treated using the conventional tooth-anchored facemask (T group: mean age 9.3 ± 1.1 years, mean ANB: -0.93°) whereas the other 25 were treated using a miniscrew-anchored facemask (M group: mean age 9.7 ± 1.3 years. mean ANB: -1.61°). Two miniscrews were placed on the palate for bone anchorage. In both T and M groups, facemasks applied a force of 20-30° down on the occlusal plane, and the force increased from 200 g to 300-350 g per side throughout the treatments. The patients were instructed to wear facemasks for at least 14 h per day. A total of 16 angular and 11 linear cephalometric measurements were analysed to determine the skeletal and dental changes before and after facemask treatment. A paired t-test was used to verify the effects before and after treatment in each group. All miniscrews were well maintained during treatment. The values of SNA, SN-ANS, ANB and A to N-Perp, which indicate anterior protraction of the maxilla, were significantly higher in the M group compared with the T group (P < .05). Proclination of the maxillary incisors, extrusion and mesialization of the maxillary molars were significantly greater in the T group (P < .05). Miniscrew-anchored facemask treatment increased the amount of maxillary protraction and reduced the dental side effects compared with conventional tooth-anchored facemask treatment in growing patients with skeletal Class III malocclusion.

"Eyes don't say it all" - Communication challenges while wearing facemasks in class

Facemasks are personal protective equipment worn to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19. University students and teachers/lecturers in Serbia are required to wear facemasks in class at all times. However, such practice may cause challenges in student-teacher communication. We present students' experiences regarding speech intelligibility in the educational setting. We distributed an anonymous online questionnaire among students from various universities. Speaking with a facemask in class creates communication challenges for teachers and students alike. Students claim that teachers often have difficulties understanding students who speak wearing masks; teachers often ask students to repeat the sentence, and teachers often ask students to speak louder. Similarly, when teachers talk with their facemasks, students often report not hearing or understanding teachers back. In turn, students would ask teachers to repeat the sentence and raise voices. Students pay more attention to teachers' facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and tone of voice. Students tend to engage their non-verbal interaction skills more often to facilitate communication. We further discuss the differences regarding students' gender and the type of facemask typically worn. We express concern that the inability to communicate clearly may cause annoyance and frustration in the academic setting.

The gendered dimensions of the anti-mask and anti-lockdown movement on social media

This paper examines the anti-mask and anti-lockdown online movement in connection to the COVID-19 pandemic. To combat the spread of the coronavirus, health officials around the world urged and/or mandated citizens to wear facemasks and adopt physical distancing measures. These health policies and guidelines have become highly politicized in some parts of the world, often discussed in association with freedom of choice and independence. We downloaded references to the anti-mask and anti-lockdown social media posts using 24 search terms. From a total of 4209 social media posts, the researchers manually filtered the explicit visual and textual content that is related to discussions of different genders. We used multimodal discourse analysis (MDM) which analyzes diverse modes of communicative texts and images and focuses on appeals to emotions and reasoning. Using the MDM approach, we analysed posts taken from Facebook and Instagram from active anti-mask and anti-lockdown users, and we identified three main discourses around the gendered discussion of the anti-mask movement including hypermasculine, sexist and pejorative portrayals of “Karen”, and appropriating freedom and feminism discourses. A better understanding of how social media users evoke gendered discourses to spread anti-mask and anti-lockdown messages can help researchers identify differing reactions toward pandemic measures.

Are people more averse to microbe-sharing contact with ethnic outgroup members? A registered report

Intergroup biases are widespread across cultures and time. The current study tests an existing hypothesis that has been proposed to explain such biases: the mind has evolved to interpret outgroup membership as a cue to pathogen threat. In this registered report, we test a core feature of this hypothesis. Adapting methods from earlier work, we examine (1) whether people are less comfortable with microbe-sharing contact with an ethnic outgroup member than an ethnic ingroup member, and (2) whether this difference is exacerbated by additional visual cues to a target's infectiousness. Using Chinese ( N = 1533) and British ( N = 1371) samples recruited from the online platforms WJX and Prolific, we assessed contact comfort with targets who were either East Asian or White and who were either modified to have symptoms of infection or unmodified (or, for exploratory purposes, modified to wear facemasks). Contact comfort was lower for targets modified to have symptoms of infection. However, we detected no differences in contact comfort with ethnic-ingroup targets versus ethnic-outgroup targets. These results do not support the hypothesis that people interpret ethnic outgroup membership alone as a cue to infection risk.

Effects of mask-wearing on treadmill exercise test

Abstract Background Concerning about the spread of COVID-19, World Health Organization recommends wearing facemasks to minimize viral transmission. Patients are required to wear facemasks while conducting treadmill exercise tests in hospitals. The effects of mask-wearing on the results of stress exercise testing remain uncertain. Purpose This study aims to assess the impact of mask-wearing on the physiological parameters during treadmill exercise testing. Methods Patients who underwent treadmill exercise test using the Bruce protocol for the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease were retrospectively examined between 2020 and 2021. A propensity score matching was performed to adjust the baseline characteristics of patients with and without mask. Blood pressure, heart rate, exercise duration, and the interpretation of stress test were compared. The ischemic ST-segment response was defined as flat or downsloping depression of the ST seg-ment &amp;gt;0.1 mV below baseline and lasting longer than 0.08 second. Nondiagnostic result of treadmill exercise test was defined as absence of ischemic ST-segment response in which the 90% of maximal predicted heart rate for age and sex was not achieved. Results Following 1:1 propensity score matching, a total of 3,996 patients were enrolled for analysis, including 1,998 patients who performed treadmill exercise testing with masks, and 1,998 without masks. Baseline characteristics were similar between the two groups (mean age, 56.1±12.1 years; 38.7% female; mean body mass index, 25.5±3.9 kg/m2). At baseline, patients with masks had significantly higher heart rate (84.8±14.7 bpm vs. 82.5±14.0 bpm; p&amp;lt;0.001) and lower systolic blood pressure (130.4±19.0 mmHg vs. 132.4±18.7 mmHg; p=0.001) than those without masks. Patients with masks conducted significantly shorter duration of exercise (435±128 seconds vs. 481±133 seconds; p&amp;lt;0.001), achieved significantly lower measurement of peak heart rate (149.5±17.1 bpm vs. 152.7±17.0 bpm; p&amp;lt;0.001), and had significantly lower rate-pressure products (26,366±5,207 mmHg·bpm vs. 27,629±5,242 mmHg*bpm; p&amp;lt;0.001) than those without masks. The proportion of patients who were unable to complete stage II of the Bruce protocol was significantly higher among patients with masks (15.1% vs. 9.0%; p&amp;lt;0.001). The proportion of nondiagnostic result was significantly higher among patients with mask (12.2% vs. 8.8%; p&amp;lt;0.001), whereas the proportion of positive ischemic ST-segment response rate was significantly higher among patients without mask (28.1% vs. 23.3%; p=0.001). Conclusions Our study demonstrated that performing treadmill exercise test with mask could significantly decrease the duration of exercise, reduce the maximal achieved heart rate, decease the rate-pressure product, and thus reduce the diagnostic power of treadmill exercise testing. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.

Intelligent Facemask Coverage Detector in a World of Chaos

The recent outbreak of COVID-19 around the world has caused a global health catastrophe along with economic consequences. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), this devastating crisis can be minimized and controlled if humans wear facemasks in public; however, the prevention of spreading COVID-19 can only be possible only if they are worn properly, covering both the nose and mouth. Nonetheless, in public places or in chaos, a manual check of persons wearing the masks properly or not is a hectic job and can cause panic. For such conditions, an automatic mask-wearing system is desired. Therefore, this study analyzed several deep learning pre-trained networks and classical machine learning algorithms that can automatically detect whether the person wears the facemask or not. For this, 40,000 images are utilized to train and test 9 different models, namely, InceptionV3, EfficientNetB0, EfficientNetB2, DenseNet201, ResNet152, VGG19, convolutional neural network (CNN), support vector machine (SVM), and random forest (RF), to recognize facemasks in images. Besides just detecting the mask, the trained models also detect whether the person is wearing the mask properly (covering nose and mouth), partially (mouth only), or wearing it inappropriately (not covering nose and mouth). Experimental work reveals that InceptionV3 and EfficientNetB2 outperformed all other methods by attaining an overall accuracy of around 98.40% and a precision, recall, and F1-score of 98.30%.

Make the invisible visible: Valuation of the hidden cost of particulate-filtering facemask use against air pollution in China

The use of articulate-filtering facemasks (hereinafter referred to as facemasks) as a defensive measure to reduce air pollution exposure has not been adopted by the Chinese public. Our descriptive investigation reveals hidden barriers other than facemask expenditure that determine the choice to use facemasks. Whether discomfort or inconvenience are the major sources of inaction is largely unknown. By conducting a choice experiment, we observed how people made trade-offs between the costs and health benefits of facemask use in monetary terms, defined as willingness to pay (WTP). The results first demonstrated that discomfort and inconvenience majorly account for the inaction of facemask use, as they are, on average, valuated 6.94 and 24.00 times the facemask expenditures for year 2017 and 2022, respectively. Second, we estimated the threshold of lung cancer mortality above which the cost of facemask use weighs less than the health benefits, which implies a trigger point of health protection behavior. Third, we predicted, in the contexts of air pollution in 2017 and 2021 at the city level, that people refused to wear facemasks if they perceived lung cancer mortality as the one presented in current scientific assessments. We suggested the need to study the subjective reality of public defensive measures if the objectives of air quality and, more generally, environmental management are to be achieved.

Contexts, beliefs and health behaviour: Are individuals who engage in risky sexual behaviour likely to wear facemasks against COVID-19?

Beside age, underlying comorbidities and availability of sanitation facilities, individual health beliefs and behaviour are critical in combating the sustained prevalence of Covid-19. Behaviour has, however, been shown to be consistent but could be context- dependent based on the individual’s beliefs. To investigate whether or not individuals’ protective behaviour against coronavirus is associated with their behaviour in a previous health context. Facemask usage and engagement in risky sexual behaviour (RSB) were employed as corollaries of Covid-19 protective behaviour and a previous health context respectively. Data on them and other sociodemographic correlates of health behaviour were collected on 522 Nigerians via a web-based survey. The data were analyzed using frequency, Chi Square and Binary Logistics Regression. About 31% of the population wore facemasks in public, 48.1% believed Covid existed and was severe, and 31.6% had engaged in RSB. Individuals who engaged in RSB had lower odds of wearing facemasks in public in both the general population and across the rural-urban divide. The relationship was, however, only statistically significant (OR:0.642, p<0.05) in the adjusted regression model. Other significant determinants of facemask use were gender, place of residence, employment status and beliefs about Covid. The similarity of individual beliefs and behaviours in different health contexts provides an opportunity to model behaviour change communication policies for preventing and combating the spread of coronavirus and other infectious diseases.

Wearing Face Mask for COVID-19 Prevention: A timely example of Prevention Paradox

A "prevention paradox," according to Thompson, is a type of prevention that has many benefits for the entire population but may not be as beneficial to each individual as it is to the entire community. COVID-19 is one of the most mysterious developing viruses in history, capable of being transmitted from one person to another mostly through breathing. If we do not follow specific advice, such as wearing a face mask, we will all become infected very rapidly. To save the lives of a small percentage of the population, millions of people should wear face masks.

UK street art and the meaning of masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-21

ABSTRACT This paper contributes to social and cultural geographies of the COVID-19 pandemic through an exploration of the role of UK street art in documenting the remarkable shifts in the practice of wearing facemasks, the tensions and emotions involved, and the transformations in the meaning of facemasks during the pandemic. Street art has become an important outlet for political critique and social engagement, capturing the public mood in response to policies and recommendations attempting to stem viral transmission, including the requirement to wear facemasks in some public places. Drawing primarily on image analysis of street artworks produced during 2020 and sourced using online search tools, and qualitative interviews with UK street artists in 2020 and 2021, the paper first explores the changing geographies and politics of street art during the pandemic. It then examines the ways in which street art portrays mask-wearing simultaneously as reassuring, protective and fear-inducing, and reflects the meaning of masks in relation to protecting public health, managing anxieties concerning health risks, boosting morale, and symbolising solidarity and public spiritedness. The paper argues that pandemic street art contributes to public dialogue by articulating emotion and deeply held concerns, and communicating the intimate politics, semiotic meanings and social properties of objects associated with disease.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) Assessment on LifeStyle, Public Health Measures Practiced by Society and Their Impact to Contain COVID-19 Transmission Among Afar Community in Selected Parts of Afar Region, Ethiopia.

IntroductionCoronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, RNA family. It has continued to spread across the world after its first outbreak in China in 2019. On 11 March 2020 the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic given its global public health and economic impacts.ObjectiveTo assess knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) on lifestyle, public health measures practiced by society and their impact to contain COVID-19 transmission in the Afar community, Afar Region, Ethiopia.MethodsCommunity-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from May to July, 2020, on purposively selected districts and the Peasant Association (PA). Simple random sampling was applied to select households and study participants. Structured and semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from study participants. The collected data were entered into Microsoft Excel and transferred to SPSS version 20 for analysis. Both descriptive and analytical analysis was provided and a p-value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.ResultsOf the total (266) study participants, most of them had no formal education (61.7%) and were aged from 35–40 (34.2%). More than half, 67.7% and 56.8%, of participants did not know chewing chat and smoking cigarettes as a risk factor for COVID-19, respectively. Almost half, 49.6%, of participants live in a house which is non-partitioned and without ventilation. The participants were took part in public gatherings such as funerals (27.1%), weddings (13.9%), meetings (13.5%) and went to a market (9%) during the pandemic. Nearly half (47.7%) of the study participants did not wear facemasks. Of the total, 27.4% and 71.4% participants lost their daily income more than and less than half, respectively.ConclusionThis study revealed knowledge, attitude and practice of the community in the area to contain COVID-19 spread were minimal. Therefore, more improvement of public health measures will be required.