OBJECTIVE: Healthcare workers are at risk of exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 disease since they are the first line contact with patients in the healthcare sector. Thus, their infection prevention and control (IPC) practices have critical implications in limiting hospital transmission of the disease during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we assessed the IPC practices by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 outbreak in the southwestern state of Nigeria.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare workers in two local government areas (LGAs) in Ondo State. Data were collected through interviewers’ administered questionnaire to the respondents, capturing their socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge of IPC, attitude, and practices toward the SARS-CoV-2 virus prevention. The data were collected between November and December 2020, then scrutinized for completeness and analysis using SPSS (version 18.0; Chicago, IL, USA). The 95% confident interval (CI) and the computed p-value were used to determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Hence, the p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: The interview was carried out on 293 healthcare workers, among which most of the respondents 235 (80.2%) were female, 80 (27.3%) were within the age group of 40-49 years (Mean ± Standard deviation: 40.2 ± 11.8), and 227 (77.5%) of the respondents were married. More than half (172, 58.7%) of the respondents were community health workers. The result showed that most of the respondents, 248 (84.6%) have good knowledge of IPC while more than half of the respondents, 195 (66.6%) have a good attitude towards IPC, and 80 (27.3%) had good IPC practices towards SARS-CoV-2 virus prevention. Significantly, the odds of having good IPC practice increased among the respondents who have been trained on IPC compared to those who have not been trained (AOR= 3.5; 95% CI= 1.5-8.3).

CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed good IPC knowledge and a high attitude towards SARS-CoV-2 virus prevention and control. However, the IPC practices towards SARS-CoV-2 virus prevention and control were suboptimal. Hence, the study recommends training and re-training of healthcare workers and in addition adequate supply of personal protection equipment (PPE)/IPC commodities and regular supportive supervision to ensure that IPC knowledge translates into practice among healthcare workers in the fight against SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.