Public’s Knowledge and Beliefs towards Universal Safety Precautions during COVID-19 Pandemic in Nepal: A web-based Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared as a global pandemic. In the absence of vaccines or specific drugs for COVID-19, a better understanding and implementation of universal safety precautions is essential for the prevention of COVID-19 virus infection globally. People’s adherence to the universal precautions safety measures against COVID-19 is essential which is largely affected by their knowledge and belief. Objectives: To assess the public’s knowledge and belief toward the universal safety precautions during COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional web-based online survey was conducted in general public in Nepal during April, 2020. A self-designed questionnaire was prepared using Google forms via docs.google.com/forms for the collection of the data. The study participants were grouped into two categories according to their level of knowledge: excellent (score 80% and above) and average (score less than 80%). Descriptive statistics mean, frequency and percentage were used to analyze the data. Results: Out of 228, majority were male (90.4%) and aged 36-45 years (36%). Mean knowledge score was 4.68±1.41. Most of them (57.9%) had average knowledge. Average of the correct responses in the knowledge and belief domain were found to be 66.9% and 71.2% respectively. Majority of the public (55.3%) believed that home-made alcohol-based hand sanitizer is equally effective to factory-made standard sanitizer against COVID-19 virus. Conclusion: Knowledge toward universal safety precautions against COVID-19 were average among the majority of the public. There was gap between knowledge and belief domain. There is an unmet need for long term educational interventions among the public regarding the preventive methods against COVID-19. Keywords: Knowledge; Belief; COVID-19; Nepal; Public; Universal safety precautions.