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Public Perceptions Regarding the Preparedness of Government to Combat the Third Wave of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) Infection Across Various States of India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2023

Dibya Sundar Panda Open the ORCID record for Dibya Sundar Panda [Opens in a new window] ,
Ranjan Kumar Giri ,
Madhusmruti Khandai ,
Ibrahim A. Naguib  and
Mohammad A. S. Abourehab
Dibya Sundar Panda*
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Jouf University, Sakaka, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Ranjan Kumar Giri
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Pharmacy and Technology, Salipur, India
Madhusmruti Khandai
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmaceutics, Royal College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Berhampur, India
Ibrahim A. Naguib
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Taif University, Taif, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Mohammad A. S. Abourehab
Affiliation:
Department of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmacy, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
*
Corresponding author: Dibya Sundar Panda, Email: dibyapanda1974@gmail.com.
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Abstract

India has already passed through 2 waves of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic losing many lives. The reason for losing lives may be due to the unpreparedness of the health care system of India for this unprecedented pandemic. To assess the government’s preparedness, an institutional-based cross-sectional prospective survey was conducted among the adult population of selected states in India. A self-administered 30-item questionnaire divided into 5 sections (demography of the participants, steps to create awareness, prevent spread of infection, handle the emergency, and prognosis) was distributed online through Google Forms. The responses were collected in an Excel file. SPSS software was used to perform the descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Nearly a quarter of the participants “strongly disagree”/“disagree” about the government’s preparedness for the third wave. Considering their perception, it cannot be assured that the government is well prepared to handle the emergency. So, the government must maintain emergency funding and develop a health infrastructure. The government should take steps to reduce social stigma, prevent spreading of unscientific propagation, and make people aware of the World Health Organization (WHO) as the reliable source of information for health emergencies to avoid a human crisis in the future.

Keywords

communicationemergencypreparednesspreventionprognosis
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 17 , 2023 , e362
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc.

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