Assessment of knowledge, attitude and practice of COVID-19 guidelines among health care workers in Alex Ekwueme Federal University teaching hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Background: COVID-19 is a major Public Health challenge that has affected the world’s economy. Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practices of Healthcare workers (HCWs) towards COVID-19 can improve or sustain the successes recorded by relevant agencies in the fight against COVID-19.Methods: a cross-sectional survey was done using semi-structured questionnaires and simple sampling technique. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 22.Results: Out of the 368 respondents, 205 were doctors while 150 were nurses. Others were clerical workers, administrative officers and maintenance workers. Knowledge of COVID-19 was generally high amongst respondents recording a correct response to questions about knowledge of COVID-19 in more than 90% of the case. However, the attitude and practice of COVID-19 infection, prevention and control protocols were poor. Out of the respondents, 41.8% would not stay at home if they had minor COVID-19 like symptoms; only 39.4% would take responsibility to ensure people around them follow good respiratory hygiene. Respondents who would keep social distancing while talking with co-workers, ensure safe disposal of personal protective equipment (PPEs) and safe waste management of PPEs were 56%, 39.9% and 53.8% respectively.Conclusions: Knowledge of COVID-19 prevention protocols is high but attitude/practice of these laid out protocols still desires a lot of effort from HCWs. There is need for training/retraining of HCWs on COVID-19 infection, prevention and control strategies to ensure the success being recorded against the disease is sustained while preventing the possibility of a second wave of infection