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Community Preparedness and Practices for Prevention and Control of COVID-19 (COP-COVID): An Assessment from Rural Northern India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2021

P. Aravind Gandhi Open the ORCID record for P. Aravind Gandhi [Opens in a new window] ,
Tanveer Rehman ,
Divya Ilanchoorian  and
Soundappan Kathirvel Open the ORCID record for Soundappan Kathirvel [Opens in a new window]
P. Aravind Gandhi
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
Tanveer Rehman
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
Divya Ilanchoorian
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
Soundappan Kathirvel*
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine & School of Public Health, PGIMER, Chandigarh, India
*
Corresponding author: Soundappan Kathirvel, Email: selvkathir@gmail.com.
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Abstract

Objectives:

The study assessed the community preparedness to manage the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and access to health-care services during the lockdown of 2020 in a rural health block of northern India.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted during June-July, 2020, in 25 villages and 5 wards of a rural administrative block of Haryana. A pretested, semi-structured investigator-administered checklist was used to assess the community preparedness and practices for COVID-19 prevention/control and health-care access through direct observations and interviewing community health workers and beneficiaries.

Results:

Active surveillance for influenza-like illness was carried out in 86.7% of the study units, although the frequency was once a month. There was poor adherence (adherence: 0-3%) to COVID-19 infection prevention and control (IPC) measures such as physical distancing and use of face masks. Rural beneficiaries reported difficulty in accessing essential health-care services than their urban counterparts.

Conclusions:

A qualitative study to understand the facilitators and barriers for the non-adherence to IPC measures by the study population and formulating behavior change communication strategies for improving the IPC measures is needed. Repeat, cross-sectional surveys at regular intervals may be planned to gauge the change and effect of the interventions on the community preparedness and practices.

Keywords

COVID-19emergency preparednessIndiahealth-care servicestransect walk
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e29
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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