Public awareness of Covid-19

Public awareness of Covid-19 After Getting Vaccine

Not everyone in the world has yet been freed from covid19, although the coronavirus vaccine has already been discovered, and it is w.h.o. Approved. First of all, I would like to say that the Bangladesh government has said that 64 percent of the total population get covid-19 the vaccine, from there those under the age of 18 will not get the covid 19 vaccines. People who give it must be over 18 years of age and must get rid of some of the diseases are allergic diseases. According to Bangladesh government rules, the government will not be responsible for the vaccine's side effects. The citizen will have to take full responsibility.

The coronavirus vaccine will be available in Bangladesh by January 25, 2021. To be honest, it is impossible to say that we will not get rid of the coronavirus completely after getting the vaccine. 

So here are the things we need to be aware of after getting the vaccine.

Public Awareness of Covid-19 Outbreak and Maintenance Prioritization of Medical Equipment

Public awareness of Covid-19 outbreak and Maintenance

Prioritization of Medical Equipment

"Awareness of COVID-19 and Maintenance Prioritization of Medical Equipment" 

Though we are on the learning curve, this report has enabled us to learn about the pandemic and our medical equipment conditions. So, it becomes a very challenging and interesting experience for us. Thank you for your supportive consideration for formulating an idea. Without your inspiring words, this report would have been an incomplete one.

Exclusive Summary

 Covid-19, the coronavirus, a global pandemic, has affected the whole world. When this pandemic affected the world, no one knows how to face this virus. So before knowing different things like how people rescue themselves from viruses, people started to be affected and died. But WHO (World Health Organization) then tell us some important theories about Covid-19, how we can make safe from this virus. They told us to use a mask and PPE, which can save people from this virus. Moreover, the WHO advises people to avoid public gatherings. Because COVID-19 can spread by aerosols, nasal drops. Many countries have to lock down their economic activities and other activities to save people from the virus. So people have to suffer a lot from this virus. Now talk about Bangladesh. Bangladesh is an overpopulated country. When Corona comes to Bangladesh, people become very careless about it, so like the other countries, the government also closed Bangladesh, schools, and colleges. If anyone goes out of home, people have to pay the punishment. Bangladeshi government tries its best to cope up with the situation. But as we all know, Bangladesh lower-middle-class country, so many poor people have to do daily work to earn their livelihood. For their sake, the government has to open all the offices and other workplaces. For this reason, the risk is high now.  So, people must be cautious now. Rather, become cautious, the peoples of Bangladesh become careless. Because of their illiterate behavior, many people have been affected, and many people died. As WHO tell use to wear mask and PPE, people don't want to wear those staffs there are many reasons behind it. When the COVID-19 started, the price of this medical equipment was very high. For that reason, many poor people cannot afford it and got affected by COVID-19. Let's come to talk about the medical sector of Bangladesh. The equipment they use for curing the patients, they don't maintain those properly. That equipment has some rules and regulations about how they would be using and how they would be disposed of. But Bangladeshi people don't maintain these rules and regulations for those who face many problems.  So people's opinions about Covid-19 and medical equipment are different. Many people suggest different things to create awareness among people.

Contents

Introduction 1

Limitations 2

Scope 3

Historical Background 3

Methodology 5

Finding and Analysis 8

Recommendations 14

Conclusion 16

Appendix 17

Introduction

 Coronaviruses are a large family of respiratory viruses that, in humans and animals, can cause illness. Coronaviruses that circulate among animals can evolve and infect humans in rare cases. These diseases, in turn, can easily spread from person to person. Coronavirus (Covid-19) was declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in early March 2020. It has spread throughout the entire world and became a major health threat. This coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China. It is a highly transmittable virus with a high rate of casualty. It is spread among more than 240 countries, with more than 92 million confirmed cases and more than 1.9 million deaths as of January 2021. Many developed countries also suffering from this pandemic even though they took severe isolation measures to prevent themselves from the infection. The World Health Organization has declared the situation a public health emergency of international concern. The first case of Covid-19 was identified on March 8, 2020. Since then, 524910 confirmed cases and 7833 deaths have been reported in Bangladesh until 13th January 2021. The virus continues to spread in this country also. The government of Bangladesh, Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), and Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (ICR) has raised a nationwide alert and took measurements to prevent and reduce the casualties and impacts of this virus in this country. But this pandemic has taught us that it can only be controlled with every individual's help in this country. Without the help of every people in this country, this virus cannot be stopped. Pfizer is first succeeded in inventing a coronavirus vaccine that's a piece of good news for people. But we, the people, are not lagging behind, Globe Biotech, a research lab in Bangladesh, is in the final stage to prepare the corona vaccine, and they already named their vaccine "Bongo Vax." As it is a highly transmittable virus, only taking safety measurements and creating awareness among everyone can stop this virus. Unfortunately, the medical equipment that is needed for the affected patients is not that much available. Such as, for patients with a serious condition, ventilators are needed. There are not many ventilators available for all the patients. For this, the prioritization of this medical equipment is much needed. Not only that, peoples of Bangladesh how to properly use their mask and other equipment's As we are short of this equipment's, we need to make proper use of them and prioritize the use of these equipment's so that the people who need these the most can get these.

 So, in this circumstance, we are doing research on this topic. Our main perspective is to create awareness among Bangladesh people about Covid-19 and know what they recommend about the situation. Not only that, but we also create awareness about maintaining the medical equipment's which is very essential in this situation.

Limitations

During Covid-19, it was risky for us to conduct face-to-face research outside. So, we have to conduct our research to sit at home. Now we are writing the mentioning the limitations of the research below: 

1. Since it is not face-to-face research, we could not ensure 100% of the participants' information

2. 300 participants have taken part in our research. If we had ensured more participants in the research, the survey might have been more enriched.

3. As the survey was held online, it was impossible to reach people of different ages, classes, and places to consider the matter.

4. Barrier to communicate with the experts online was another limitation on enriching the survey. 

5. As we all know, Bangladeshi people are not very cautious about Covid-19, so many people avoid our survey.

6. Another limitation is that secondary data are very dynamic, so it can be changed whenever the instructor check out our research. 

Scope

The research has been conducted by following the scope mentioned below:

1. What:  We have set the objective to accumulate information about how aware people of Bangladesh about covid19, its effects, etc.

2. How: We set the medium first. Due to the health issue, we avoided face-to-face surveys and chose social media as the medium.

3. Who: Firstly, we have set the criteria that who and which group will be our participants for the research. Our target group was mainly the students of different public and private universities in Bangladesh. Apart from this, we have also included people of different ages available on social media according to our criteria.

4. Where: We conducted research on different groups and communities on Facebook.

5.  When:  A google form we opened that accepted the comments and opinion all 24 hours from 8 January to 14 January

     

                                         

Historical Background

Throughout history, there has been an emergence of various infectious diseases that have caused wide destruction among societies. According to a report made by the World Health Organization (WHO), the world has witnessed and experienced the emergence of various types of disease outbreaks and epidemics caused by more than 20 infectious agents such as H1N12 and MERS over the last few decades.

At present, the emergence of diseases (SARS and MERS) associated with the coronavirus caused global challenges to public health systems. SARS-CoV-2 (the causative agent for coronavirus disease COVID-19) is the latest inclusion to this growing list of unwelcomed novel agents. 

The coronavirus pandemic, which is officially termed Covid-19, is an ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is widely believed that the coronavirus was generated from Wuhan and was first detected in early November 2019. This virus has first infected humans in Wuhan, which is the capital city of Hubei province in the central region of the People's Republic of China. The WHO announced COVID-19, a public health emergency of international concern in January and a pandemic in March 2020. 

In today's world, the size and reach capacity limit of global travel networks is exceptional. In 2018 alone, approximately 60% of the world population, which is more than 4million, traveled globally using commercial flights. In today's global convergence, locally emerging viruses have the ability to spread rapidly and cross borders and become a forthcoming public health threat to the entire world. This is demonstrated by the current COVID-19 pandemic, where the appearance of a seemingly limited cluster of pneumonia cases is linked to a seafood market in Wuhan.

Undoubtedly, China has become one of the worst pandemics in human history. An impressive amount of more than 1.4 million infections took place in 177 countries, of which some countries have reached the peak of the epidemic. In contrast, other countries were just beginning to experience an increase in the number of cases and more than 85000 deaths globally as of 9 April 2020 within a short period of time starting from mid-November 2019. 

The coronavirus outbreak was first reported to have spread in Bangladesh due to the first 3 cases reported around the beginning of March 2020 by the epidemiology institute. Ever since the pandemic has started to spread widely around the whole nation, the number of people infected has increased severely. Bangladesh is considered to be the second most affected country in South Asia, after India. 

As Bangladesh is a highly populated country, so to protect the population from the widespread coronavirus, the government has announced lockdown throughout the nation from 16th March to 30th May and prepared some necessary precautions to maintain order spread awareness us away from this syndrome. Even though the rate of infected people remained low until the end of March, unfortunately, there was a steep rise in April. The cases in Bangladesh grew by 11.55%, the highest in Asia, ahead of Indonesia, with 1.86%. By 6 May 2020, cases were spotted and confirmed in all districts of Bangladesh. Among them, Rangamati was the last district to report confirmed cases of COVID-19. The number of cases kept on rising, and by 13 June 2020, it exceeded the number of cases in China where the virus has been generated. On 5 July 2020, Bangladesh reached two serious levels of 160,000 cases and 2,000 deaths and overtook France in terms of the number of cases two days later. Fortunately, the country's number of recoveries later started to exceed the number of active cases on 12 July. 

Vaccines are the last and best hope to end the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. At present, various types of COVID-19 vaccines are under clinical trials, such as Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, Moderna vaccine, etc. The FDA will assess and review the trials' results before approving COVID-19 vaccines for use to check if the basic principles are being used to develop or not prevent any harm to the vaccine candidates. As the current situation is not under control and seems to worsen, there is an urgent need for COVID-19 vaccines. As it takes months or years for the  FDA's approval process for the vaccine, they think of giving emergency use authorization to COVID-19 vaccines based on less data than is normally required. The data is required to show that the vaccines are safe and effective to use before the FDA approves for emergency use of vaccination or gives authorization. 

Methodology 

In this research, we tried to dig deep to know more about some of the main reasons behind the increase of covid-19 cases in our country and raised awareness among people about it to find appropriate responses that could minimize the number of cases and death toll.  This was analytical research, where the main focus was to determine the number of COVID-19 cases in our country. Also, with the help of this research, we aimed to maintain the prioritization of medical equipment. We gathered primary data through the help of social media. 

The study was performed on users of Facebook and our friends, relatives, and peers. We were hoping to reach as many people as possible. We depended more on normal people because it helped us to get the full picture of the scenario. We gathered our secondary data from newspapers and prominent websites, such as television news and radio news. These secondary data helped us to get real-time views on the COVID-19 situation and manipulation of medical equipment. Due to the pandemic, we were very dependent on the TV news for a real-time update on COVID-19.  Rather than depending on our friends and peers, we tried to reach normal life people as most people would get outside to earn and lead their livelihood. Those people's opinions helped us get an overview of the current COVID-19 situation in our country. We reached to those people by getting into public groups on Facebook. Facebook consists of a larger chunk of people of our country. We thought that this social media would help us to get a large number of people. The number of people we were able to reach was 285. So, the sample size is 285.

We had gathered quantitative data to conduct research while asking respondents questions about the medical equipment and their usage. We went through various social media to gather our research data. We conducted a convenience non-probability sampling, which means we gathered our data from anyone we could find virtually. The main target was to make anyone fill up our form from social media.

For one question, we gathered qualitative data, which was supposed to give us a view of people's perceptions of COVID-19. We gathered many meaningful answers to this question, which are mentioned in the recommendation section. This question was necessary as we also wanted to test the psychology of people towards this virus.

 We started by sending our forms to our friends, then families, at last, our peers. AWe also posted about our survey to 2-3 public groups with a large audience, but the response was not so good considering the number of members. In the end, we managed 64.9% of our data from the age group 10 to 20. 29.5% of the response was from the age group 21 to 30. 1.8 % of 285 were from the 31 to 40 age group, while 3.9% were from the 40+ age group.  Also, we requested people from all popular groups to participate in our research by giving their valuable opinions, which could help us reach a final decision. Due to this pandemic, we could not reach every person and our data as it is a dangerous situation. This pandemic caused everyone to move to the virtual world because most of the population had moved already. That was one of the main reasons why we had to do our survey online. Those people's opinions helped us reach an answer that could give us the ultimate solution to save our country from this disastrous disease. We thought that online presence would also cause them to feel up our survey as it would take only a small amount of time. Also, online forms helped us in many ways. We did not have to send our forms physically to every single person. Physical forms also had a high margin of error. Comparing to that, we thought it would be beneficial for us if we go through virtual media.

 We also went to some public places such as some shopping complexes, banks, and hospitals to gather more data about the current situation of COVID-19. We went to these places to see how many people are following the rules and obeying the instructions. Also, as a side benefit of this observation, we noticed this virus's mental effect in our countrymen. 

In the data analysis method, google forms automatically created all of the graphs and pie charts. Those data came so handily for us that we did not have to create any other than that. Also, the tables in this research paper were from Google Sheets. Google sheet gathered those data automatically and created a nice spreadsheet out of that. As it is a digital age and age of the internet, we are dependent on everything for our daily work. Google Sheets is an example of that. We had not had to go outside because of a pandemic. We created Google Forms for that. With the help of which we managed to gather data from our respondents. Google Forms created pie charts and graphs for us, and at the end, we got a spreadsheet out of Google Sheets.

Data presentation of this research paper is virtual as physical attendance is impossible right now. We did this research in a soft copy format because we were told to submit it virtually. As a result, all of our findings and research data are presented in a soft copy format. Also, all of the data that we found from our respondents were in soft copy format. We just collected all our data, analyzed that, and thus created our research paper.

Finding and Analysis 

 

Which age group do you belong to?

1. 10-20
2. 20-30
3. 31-40
4. 40+

• 29.5%
• 64.9%
• 1.8%
• 3.9%

 In this research paper, we want to create awareness among the people of Bangladesh. So we do a survey on the people. In this survey, our first question is which age group respondents belong to. As we see in the table, most of the respondents are in the age group of 20-30. 64.9% of the respondent are chosen in this category. The other categories of 10-20, 31-40, 40+ having 29.5%,1.8%, 3.9% respectfully.

When did you quarantine yourself?

Before the government announcing the lockdown

After the nationwide lockdown was imposed

Did not care about lockdown

• 29.1%
• 64.9%
• 6%

In the second question, we asked when the respondents quarantine themselves. We 64.3% of people are quarantine themselves after the nationwide lockdown was imposed. We also see that 6% of people did not care about the lockdown.

 How much do you think your locality maintained the lockdown in a range between 1 to 5?

1. 43(15.1%)
2. 80(28.1%)
3. 106(37.2%)
4. 43(15.1%)
5. 13(4.6%)

In the third question, we want to know how much respondents think their locality maintained the lockdown in a range.  106 respondents think their locality maintains a range of 3 kinds of lockdown. 13 respondents think their locality maintains a higher lockdown range.

4. How much optimistic are you about the efficiency of the vaccine?

1. 9(3.2%)
2. 32(11.2%)
3. 113(39.6%)
4. 88(30.9%)
5. 43(15.1%)

In this fourth question, we won't know how people optimistic about Vaccines. Like the other question, range 3 is the preferable option for the maximum number of respondents. 113 respondents choose this option. Range 5 means peoples are very optimistic about vaccines. 15.1% of the respondents are very much optimistic.

5. How much effective was our country's health sector's response to the COVID-19 situation? (mark between 1 to 5, considering 1 as worst and 5 as best)

1. 48(16.8%)
2. 92(32.3%)
3. 89(31.2%)
4. 41(14.4%)
5. 15(5.3%)

In the next question, we want to know our health sector's effectiveness in the COVID-19 situation. We considered the range 1 as worst and 5 as best.  48 respondents (16.8%) think the health sector's response is worse, and 15 respondents think the response is best. But most people think it is slightly better than the worse. As 92 respondents, choose 92%.

6. Do you think the initial moment of Covid-19 price hike of self-protection (Mask, Hand Sanitizer) equipment is justified from the consumer's view?

1. Yes
2. No

• 31.2%
• 68.8%

Our next question in the survey is that the price of medical equipment is justified from the customer's view; 68.8% say it is not justified by the customer's eyes.

7. Why did COVID-19 spread this much in our country, in your opinion? (It was a selective question, which means respondents were free to choose options more than one)

Reluctance to follow the rules imposed

Lack of publicity

Superstition and existence of COVID-19

Others (respondent had the opportunity to write the cause as per their opinion)

• 203
• 66
• 85
• 28

Our next question is Why the Coronavirus spread in our country. Most people think that reluctance to follow the rules imposed is the main reason behind it. So, 203 persons choose this option. Lack of publicity and superstition and the existence of COVID-19 are two other reasons behind the spread.

8. There has been some news about reusing medical equipment without following standard guidelines. What is your stance on this? (It was a selective question, which means respondents were free to choose options more than one)

It is supposed to happen in a third world country like us

Lack of proper guideline from the higher authority is responsible for this

Health organizations should monitor closely to prevent such activities

• 57
• 115
• 124

We want to know about people who don't maintain the standard medical equipment guidelines in this question. Lack of proper guidelines of higher authority is one of the reasons for this. 115 respondents choose this option. This option is near the main cause of this problem. Health organizations should monitor closely is the main reason, according to respondents.

9. Do you know the proper way of disposing of a mask?

1. Yes
2. No

• 81.1%
• 18.9%

Our last question is do the respondents know how to dispose of a mask. 81.1% of the respondents said that they know about this.

After the analysis of the data found from the survey and observation, we came to a decision that most of our respondents who are from rural areas of Bangladesh had tried to follow the rules and restrictions imposed by the government. Their locality and surroundings obeyed lockdown well. Also, most of our respondents knew the proper way to dispose of masks, which can be proved from the no.9 question. Most of them think consumer goods' pricing at the initial phase of COVID-19 was justified, where we expected the answer to be another way around. Our respondents picked some causes from our selections, and they put some of their own in question no.7, which described how much they cared about the situation. They also expressed their valuable opinions on the authority's response to the situation. In the end, we can say that the respondents of this survey are quite optimistic about the situation, and they are well aware and prepared for this. Our country's medical equipment industry is not doing so well considering the gravity of the situation presented in our survey. 

From our observation around the city shopping malls and hospitals, we understood that not all people want to wear masks during this situation. As we saw that more than 40% of people do not want to wear masks unless there is any penalty, which is very shocking considering the damage this COVID-19 virus causes. Also, in the hospital where all patients were registered, those patients' relatives were fearsome as they were very anxious about their close ones' health. Everyone in this city is in a panicked moment as the vaccine has not arrived yet (at the time of writing this analysis). In the end, we want to say to everyone to follow the rules as it will be beneficial for everyone.

Recommendations

After all the traveling and survey, there are some certain recommendations that we want to provide:

1) Stay strong mentally in these hard times. Your family needs you the most

2) Think rationally during this time

3) If you belong from an affluent family, try to sustain yourselves and others

4) Maintain hygiene.

There are some significant recommendations to raise awareness of COVID-19 that we found from our research. Some of them are very useful in terms of hygiene and prevention of the virus. We are mentioning them here:

1) See, government and the authority can't control every single person in the country. Rather we have to take the responsibilities ourselves. Firstly, I have to follow the rules; I've to increase awareness among the people around me (my family member, friends, relatives, etc. We have to use the specialized personnel of every sector to increase awareness. For example, if Salem says about the awareness of COVID-19, his followers will follow this. If a celebrity talks about it, his fan base will follow it.

2) I guess mass media could make a bigger impact. Before any call, the ringtone does not help that much if you don't describe the aftermath of not following rules.

3) Boosting immunity in all the ways to fight the virus. Sitting at home won't save you. Rather, just delay your death!

4) We need proper guidelines, and each and everyone has to maintain the guidelines. The government should make some laws on the safety prioritization of medical equipment.

5) We should sanitize our hands after every hour or minute because some people sometimes accidentally touch their eyes, nose, ears, and mouth with their dirty hands, so we should often sanitize our hands. And if you are sick or have a fever, talk to your doctor and don't go outside. That's my suggestion for creating awareness of COVID-19.

6) Everyone should properly maintain the guidelines instead of believing covid-19 is a silly disease. Because they are not only harming themselves but also the people around them.

7) I don't think there are any suggestions left more than what people already know and (are ignoring) or even taking under consideration.

8) Almost everyone is aware of COVID-19, but the vast majority is unwilling to stay within the safety measures for personal reasons. I don't think creating just awareness about COVID-19 will help anymore, at least not at this stage of having this pandemic for almost a year. The only way to improve the situation is by strict monitoring in every workplace or public aspect.

9) a) Social distance should be maintained,

             b) Masks should be worn regularly,

             c) It is best not to wear the same mask over and over again. 

             d) Clothing worn by the body should be sanitized when entering the home at one's own risk

10) Proper information on this pandemic should be spread in rural areas, especially among senior citizens. Self-protective equipment should be more available to the people who are below the poverty line.

11) I think people do not understand how dangerous it is, then the government cannot do anything to be aware of them.

12) Forget awareness. The government needs to fixate its action plans and make sure they get implemented properly

13) To live a safe life, one must have proper hygiene at this bizarre period of time. A person should always wear a mask when roaming outside. Hand-sanitizers should always be with us when we go outside. The truth is, all of us struggled a lot while coming to this world. If we can do that, we can beat COVID-19 as well. Hopefully, this year will bring prosperity for ourselves and our loved ones.

  

Conclusion

Preparedness is the only key to addressing any health crisis or epidemic. So far, as a lower-middle-income country, Bangladesh has many barriers in restricting the spread of the virus. During the time of crisis such as the airborne transmission of COVID-19 virus, Bangladesh stands, similar to many other emerging countries, in the endangered position, whereby the absence of adequate hospital resources and testing kits along with public unawareness and poor coordination among the various government or private agencies is likely to result in disasters by death toll. Therefore, the country should expand its testing and healthcare facilities along with strict maintenance of health equipment. Additionally, it has to ensure a constant PPE supply for healthcare workers to prevent germs in the hospital. The government should ensure the food supply chain's adequacy, ensuring that the poor and disadvantaged are brought under adequate and effective relief programs. Above all, improvised and timely measures taken with proper coordination may help the nation fight the deadly virus. However, the government can't mitigate the situation alone, so the citizens' individual efforts, direct involvement of the nation's public health experts, and international help are required urgently. As the situation becomes more intense, the world is closely watching how Bangladesh will navigate this crisis.