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Public Perception About Pandemic Situation and Preparedness Towards a Probable Lockdown in an Affected Indian State Amidst the Second Wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2022

Shibaji Gupta Open the ORCID record for Shibaji Gupta [Opens in a new window] ,
Abhishek De ,
Rudradeep Banerjee ,
Sharmistha Sinha Gupta  and
Arup Chakraborty Open the ORCID record for Arup Chakraborty [Opens in a new window]
Shibaji Gupta
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, Midnapore Medical College, Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India
Abhishek De
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, Midnapore Medical College, Medinipur, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India
Rudradeep Banerjee
Affiliation:
Department of General Surgery, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Sharmistha Sinha Gupta
Affiliation:
West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Limited, Salt Lake, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Arup Chakraborty*
Affiliation:
Department of Community Medicine, Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
*
Corresponding author: Arup Chakraborty, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Objective:

The COVID-19 second wave badly affected India. This study assessed public preparedness and attitude towards a new lockdown in the state of West Bengal (WB) along with perception about the COVID pandemic situation.

Methods:

An anonymous questionnaire was administered to all willing adult attendees of a COVID vaccination centre in Kolkata, capital city of WB. Logistic regression was applied to find the relationship between attitude towards lockdown and other selected independent variables.

Results:

Of the 839 persons analyzed, 72.0% were non-health workers; and 55.4% thought that available vaccines reduce COVID-19 risk. Among them, 54.4% wanted stricter guidelines imposed. For preparedness, 42.6% and 28.8% said they would stock additional food and medicines respectively. On multiple logistic regression, being female, having elderly family members, perceiving the second wave as worse, and favouring stricter restrictions, all had odds of favourable attitude towards the new, proposed lockdown.

Conclusions:

A new lockdown was favoured by the majority. However, a well-planned and phased approach for this is needed in the light of many concerns about the previous lockdown. Mental health issues, financial security, medical help at hand, and ease of travel to workplaces are important issues that need to be addressed in case of future lockdown(s).

Keywords

SARS CoV-2second wavelockdownpreparednessWest BengalIndia
Type
Brief Report
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e221
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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