The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control(NCDC), says that about 91.8% of Nigerians complied with the Federal Government’s stay-at-home policy in states with complete lockdown and a high proportion of 88.3 % respondents believed that staying home was effective in curtailing the pandemic in the country.
The Director-General, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, NCDC, disclosed this in Abuja, at a result presentation by Data4COVID-19 Africa Challenge highlighting the major findings of analysis that had been carried out and would receive feedback from stakeholders on the findings in the country.
The Data4COVID-19 Africa Challenge is a data challenge hosted by I’Agence franchise de Development (AFD), Expertise France, and The GovLab; to better understand and respond to the vast range of issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences across Africa through innovative use of data.
In Nigeria, the challenge project titled ‘Understanding facilitators and barriers to compliance with non-pharmaceutical COVID-19 preventive measures in Nigeria’ aimed at analysing existing data on COVID-19 to understand the social, economic, and political factors that influence knowledge and perception of COVID-19 among Nigerians.
The project seeks to understand which social, economic, and political factors influence individual knowledge and perception of COVID-19 among Nigerians and how they shape population behaviour.
Ihekweazu, who was represented by Dr Director, Prevention Programmes & Knowledge Management, Chinewe Ochu, said that 43.3 per cent of Nigerians in states were on complete lockdown while 56.7 per cent were in states with the partial lockdown.
“A slightly higher proportion of females (380/410;92.7 per cent) than males (381/469; 81.3 per cent) were compliant with the stay at home order.
“Most respondents stayed home during the lockdown irrespective of age: 18- 24 years 87.1 per cent, 25-35 years (85.6 per cent), 36- 50 years (87.3 per cent) , 51-59 years (90.5 per cent), while 60 years(100 per cent),” he explained.
He added that in the survey, 81 per cent of respondents reported visiting several places despite the lockdown.
“The places visited include, market/ shopping, (71per cent), friends and families (11 per cent), religious houses (7per cent), work (6per cent), hospitals/ clinic(2per cent) , exercise(2per cent), party (1per cent), he said.
Ihekweazu said that there were changes in public risk perception and risky behaviours through the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country and the relationship between risky behaviours and the trend of the outbreak.
“Overall risk perception remained low during both waves with two out of every five Nigerians, considering themselves not to be at risk of contracting COVID-19 in both waves.”
“The first wave was (44.6 per cent) and the second wave was (43.9 per cent). There was a general lowering of risk perception across the various age groups in the second wave for the 25- 35 age group.
“Gender differences were observed in risk perception. A higher proportion of males than females perceived themselves to be at risk of getting infected with COVID-19 during the first wave 60.3 per cent versus 50.3per cent and the second wave 58.3per cent versus 52.6 per cent.
“There was risk perception versus geopolitical zone. In the first waves, while living in the North-eastern part of the country, this relationship was only significant for those residing in either South-west. (AOR 0.28; 95% CI 0.20-0.40) or South-South (AOR.0.41; 95per cent Cl 0.28.0.60) geopolitical zones.
“During the second wave, those residing in the North-west were four times more likely to perceive themselves at risk of COVID-19 infection than those residing in the Northeast (AOR 4. 01; 95% CI 2.89-5.57). Lowest risk perception for COVID-19 during the first and second waves RTW observed in the South-west (34%and 46.2%) respectively,” he said.
Ihekweazu noted that there were risk perception versus marital status, those who were married (53%) were (AOR 1.53; 95% CI 1.20-1.97) more likely to perceive themselves at risk of COVID-19 than the singles during the first wave.
The DG also disclosed that artisans/ daily paid workers had the highest risk perception during the first wave (69.7%), noting that their risk perception became the lowest among all employment categories during the second waves (37.7%), with a drop in the risk perception of 32%.
He further added that there were slight drop in risk perception of about 3.6% was also observed among the unemployed in the second wave compared to the first wave.
“Being a business owner (AOR.1.83.95% CI 1.30-2.57) fully employed (AOR 2.35;95% CI 1.63-3.38) or a student/Corper (AOR 2.81; 95%CI 1.90-4.17) was associated with almost twice or thrice higher odds of risk perception than being a daily paid worker during the second wave.
“ The unemployment (AOR 1.90; 95% CI 1.33-2.70) were twice more likely to perceive themselves at risk than the daily paid workers., he stressed.
Ihekweazu also disclosed that in the PERC 1 survey; a greater proportion of Nigerians did not perceive themselves to be at substantial risk of contracting COVID-19 during the first (55.1%) and second wave(56.1%).
“In the first wave of the pandemic in the country substantial risk perception was highest among those of age 60 (62.5%) and lowest among the 51 -59 of age (37.5%) and 36-50 (38.3 %) categories, whereas in the second wave there was no significant difference in the risk perception across the age group.
“However, there was a significant increase in risky behaviours in the second wave compared to the first with 20.2% increased in non-compliance to physical distancing and 15 % increased in disregard for wearing of facemasks.
“Not adhering to physical distancing was the most frequent risky behaviour across both waves. Artisan/ daily paid workers accounted for (18.2%) and the unemployed accounted for (12.8%) were the least likely to comply with physical distancing during the lockdown into the first wave.
“Student/ Corper accounted for 3.8% and the fully employed accounted for (3.9%) had the least non-compliance rate to physical distancing same period,” he explained.
He explained how the government’s non-pharmaceutical initiative (NPI) affected public trust in government and their compliance with safety protocols.
“Public trust is important for the success of a wide range of public policies that depend on behavioural responses from the public. Our analyses of public trust across two mahout national surveys conducted in 2020/2021 in the country revealed that; overall, the level of trust was over 50% across the local Government Health Department (85%), State Ministry of Health (84%), Federal Ministry of Health(82%), the National Public Health Institute (NCDC), (86%) state government (68%) and the President (57%),” he said.
In his recommendation, he said there was a need for targeted intervention to improve risk perception in females such as improving access to information and educational materials could be beneficial in slowing down the pandemic.
Ihekweazu added that there was also the need for an all-inclusive risk communication strategy that was accessible and addresses the needs of the uneducated audience.
“Intensity community engagement and effective risk communication strategies in the southern part of the country. Activities geared towards enhancing risk perception for the virus could be an effective strategy for improving adherence to COVID-19 preventive measures and slowing down transmission.
“For lockdown exceeding seven days, palliatives are highly recommended to mitigate the impact on Nigerians. Strategies geared towards slowing transmissions rates in marketplaces should be prioritized for effective infection prevention and control in the country.
“There is a need for us to leverage health and religious institutions as trusted voices to drive risk communication. Public trust in government is a critical factor in compliance with public health and social measures. Activities that build trust in government should be prioritized in all sectors,” he recommended.
It was gathered that after a rigorous review process by the challenge sponsors and data experts from around the world, AFD selected the NCDC. and awarded the agency with the sum of EUR 83,811.46.
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