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Background: A pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged and affected most of the world in early 2020. To inform effective public health measures we conducted a knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) survey among a Hausa Muslim society in Nigeria in March 2020. Methods: The study is an analytic cross-sectional survey with questionnaires administered to the general population including Health Care Workers (HCW) in Kano, Nigeria. Participants were recruited by convenience sampling following informed consent. The percentage of KAP scores were categorized as good and poor. Independent predictors of good knowledge of COVID 19 were ascertained using a binary logistic regression model. Results: The questionnaire was administered among urban 32.8%, peri-urban dwellers 32.4%, and to online participants 34.8%. The peri-urban and urban participants were given paper questionnaires. There were 886 study participants with mean age 28.58yrs [SD:10.25] (Interquartile range [IQR]:22yrs–32yrs), males 55.4% with 57.3% having had or were in tertiary education. Most participants were students 40% and civil servants 20%. The overall mean [standard deviation (SD)] for knowledge, attitude and practice scores expressed in percentage was 65.38%[SD15.90], 71.45% [SD14.10], and 65.04% [SD17.02] respectively. Out of the respondents, 270(30.47%) had good knowledge (GK), 158(17.8%) had good attitude (GA), and 230(25.96%) had good practice (GP) using cut-off scores of 75%, 86.5%, and 75% respectively. Over 48% did not agree COVID-19 originated from animals while 60% perceived the pandemic to be due to God's punishment. Also, 36% thought it was a man-made virus. When rating fear, most respondents [63.5%] had marked fear i.e. ≥ 7 out of 10 and 56% admitted to modifying their habits recently in fear of contracting the virus. As regards attitude to religious norms, 77.77% agreed on cancellation of the lesser pilgrimage as a measure to curb the spread of the disease while 23.64% admitted that greater pilgrimage (Hajj) should proceed despite the persistence of the ongoing pandemic. About 50% of the respondents insisted on attending Friday congregational prayers despite social distancing. One in four people still harbored stigma towards a person who has recovered from the virus. 28% felt some races are more at risk of the disease though 66% mentioned always practicing social distancing from persons coughing or sneezing. Almost 70% of respondents said they were willing to accept a vaccine with 39% saying they would be willing to pay for it if not publicly funded. In univariate analysis increasing age and having been ever married were associated with GK while tertiary education was associated with GA [Odds Ratio; 95% Confidence Interval] 2.66(1.79–3.95). Independent positive predictors of GK were those who were or had ever been married, those who had marked fear of COVID-19, and had modified their habits in the last three months. Those who had non-tertiary education and had the questionnaire administered as paper rather than online version had GK but age was not a predictor. Conclusion: Knowledge of transmission and preventive measures should be improved in the general population cognizant of cultural norms and Islamic practices. The study highlights the importance of considering belief systems and perception in developing control measures against COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health and social interventions are critical to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Ethiopia has implemented a variety of public health and social measures to control the pandemic. This study aimed to assess social distancing and public health preventive practices of government employees in response to COVID-19. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,573 government employees selected from 46 public institutions located in Addis Ababa. Data were collected from 8th to 19th June 2020 using a paper-based self-administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data. Binary logistic regression analyses were used to identify factors associated with outcome variables (perceived effectiveness of facemask wearing to prevent coronavirus infection, and COVID-19 testing). Majority of the participants reported facemask wearing (96%), avoiding close contact with people including handshaking (94.8%), consistently followed government recommendations (95.6%), frequent handwashing (94.5%), practiced physical distancing (89.5%), avoided mass gatherings and crowded places (88.1%), restricting movement and travelling (71.8%), and stayed home (35.6%). More than 80% of the participants perceived that consistently wearing a facemask is highly effective in preventing coronavirus infection. Respondents from Oromia perceived less about the effectiveness of wearing facemask in preventing coronavirus infection (adjusted OR = 0.27, 95% CI:0.17–0.45). About 19% of the respondents reported that they had ever tested for COVID-19. Respondents between 40–49 years old (adjusted OR = 0.41, 95% CI:0.22–0.76) and 50–66 years (adjusted OR = 0.43, 95% CI:0.19–0.95) were less likely tested for coronavirus than the younger age groups. Similarly, respondents from Oromia were less likely to test for coronavirus (adjusted OR = 0.26, 95% CI:0.12–0.56) than those from national level. Participants who were sure about the availability of COVID-19 testing were more likely to test for coronavirus. About 57% of the respondents perceived that the policy measures in response to the pandemic were inadequate. The findings showed higher social distancing and preventive practices among the government employees in response to COVID-19. Rules and regulations imposed by the government should be enforced and people should properly apply wearing facemasks, frequent handwashing, social and physical distancing measures as a comprehensive package of COVID-19 prevention and control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused severe health and economic impacts globally. Strategies to safely reopen economies, travel and trade are a high priority. Until a reliable vaccine is available, non-pharmaceutical techniques are the only available means of disease control. In this paper, we aim to evaluate the extent to which social distancing (SD) and facemask (FM) use can mitigate the transmission of COVID-19 when restrictions are lifted. We used a microsimulation activity-based model for Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area, to evaluate the power of SD and FM in controlling the pandemic under numerous scenarios. The hypothetical scenarios are designed to picture feasible futures under different assumptions. Assuming that the isolation of infected cases and the quarantining of close contacts are in place, different numerical tests are conducted and a full factorial two-way MANOVA test is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the FM and SD control strategies. The main and interactive effects of the containment strategies are evaluated by the total number of infections, percentage of infections reduction, the time it takes to get the pandemic under control, and the intensity of active cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this work is to provide an effective social distance monitoring solution in low light environments in a pandemic situation. The raging coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus has brought a global crisis with its deadly spread all over the world. In the absence of an effective treatment and vaccine the efforts to control this pandemic strictly rely on personal preventive actions, e.g., handwashing, face mask usage, environmental cleaning, and most importantly on social distancing which is the only expedient approach to cope with this situation. Low light environments can become a problem in the spread of disease because of people's night gatherings. Especially, in summers when the global temperature is at its peak, the situation can become more critical. Mostly, in cities where people have congested homes and no proper air cross-system is available. So, they find ways to get out of their homes with their families during the night to take fresh air. In such a situation, it is necessary to take effective measures to monitor the safety distance criteria to avoid more positive cases and to control the death toll. In this paper, a deep learning-based solution is proposed for the above-stated problem. The proposed framework utilizes the you only look once v4 (YOLO v4) model for real-time object detection and the social distance measuring approach is introduced with a single motionless time of flight (ToF) camera. The risk factor is indicated based on the calculated distance and safety distance violations are highlighted. Experimental results show that the proposed model exhibits good performance with 97.84% mean average precision (mAP) score and the observed mean absolute error (MAE) between actual and measured social distance values is 1.01 cm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As COVID-19 is rapidly unfolding in the United States, it is important to understand how individuals perceive the health and economic risks of the pandemic. In the absence of a readily available medical treatment, any strategy to contain the virus in the US will depend on the behavioral response of US residents. In this paper, we study individual's perceptions on COVID-19 and social distancing during the week of March 10–16, 2020, a week when COVID-19 was officially declared to be a pandemic by WHO and when new infections in the US were more than doubling every three days. Using a nationally representative sample of 5,414 respondents 18+ years of age from the Understanding America Study (UAS), we find that perceptions about COVID-19 health risks and economic consequences in the US population were largely pessimistic and highly variable by age and education. US residents who are young and do not have a college degree perceived a lower risk of getting infected but a higher probability of running out of money than others. Most individuals reported taking some steps to distance themselves from others but important differences emerge by gender and by source of information on COVID-19. Using state and day fixed-effect regressions, we show that perceptions of the health risks closely followed the number of COVID-19 cases in the country, and perceptions of the economic consequences and the prevalence of social distancing were driven upwards by both national and state-level cases. Unless addressed by effective health communication that reaches individuals across all social strata, variations in perceptions about COVID-19 epidemic raise concerns about the ability of the US to implement and sustain the widespread and restrictive policies that are required to curtail the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]