ASSESSMENT OF COMPLIANCE WITH COVID-19 NON-PHARMACEUTICAL PROTOCOLS AMONG UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA COMMUNITIES

Abstract

The rapid increase in COVID-19 case numbers, deaths, and hospitalisation of the third wave in the country is a matter of concern, particularly the alarming spread in some states of the federation where polarising opinions, changing policies and misinformation abound. The paper draws attention of the members of the campuses of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka to this looming danger to mount a greater surveillance, enlightenment campaign about the attitudes of the university communities toward compliance with COVID-19 related non-pharmaceutical interventions/protocols. 400 members of the university communities were surveyed from the two campuses to ascertain their level of compliance with nonpharmaceutical protocols of COVID-19. The study adopted a survey research design and the results were analyzed descriptively using the mean scores of the respondents on each item in the questionnaire and oral interview purposively conducted. The study found that the overall attitudes of the students at the two campuses are low, while that of the teaching and non-teaching staff are high depending on individual selfconsciousness. The results suggest that the university management should intensify its efforts on creating awareness about effects of the pandemic on people of the university communities in particular, in the nation at large and the world in general.