Original Research Article
Year: 2020 | Month: April | Volume: 7 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 232-236
Community Callousness towards Lockdown of COVID-19 Pandemic and the Role of Preventive Specialist
Saima Nazir1, Arshad Rashid2
1Senior Resident, Department of Community Medicine, SKIMS Medical College, Bemina, Srinagar - 190018.
2Lecturer, Department of Surgery, Government Medical College, Srinagar - 190010.
Corresponding Author: Arshad Rashid
ABSTRACT
Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges to public health. In mitigating its spread, social distancing by imposing a lockdown is being promulgating; but various societies are reacting differently it. The current study aims to find out the community callousness towards lockdown of COVID-19 and the reasons thereof.
Methods: This is a community based cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of seven days from 24th to 31st March in the initial part of lockdown. To observe the effectiveness of lockdown, our team consisting of a doctor, a community health worker/guide and a driver visited the concerned areas. Observations were made whether the people were following the lockdown instructions in letter and spirit or not. Once the people were seen flouting these rules, they were interviewed, as to the reasons thereof and were counseled properly.
Results: On the first day of the visit, 736 people were seen to violate the norms. The mean age of the violators was 29.86 + 3.24 years. The number of people defying the lockdown regulations decreased substantially in the successive days. There was a significant difference in flouting rules across age groups, genders, level of education, and employment status (P < 0.05).The main reason of people not adhering to lockdown was, “Since they are healthy, COVID-19 won’t afflict them” (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: A good number of people were seen pretty callous towards the lockdown announced for mitigation of COVID-19 pandemic, but with proper counseling, almost all of them reverted back to follow the lockdown.
Keywords: COVID-19; Community; Callousness; Lockdown; Preventive.
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