Knowledge, awareness, and attitudes of population in Eastern Province during outbreak of novel coronavirus (COVID-19)

Objective: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic. The current study aimed to assess public's knowledge, perception, and attitude during COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: An online survey was administered during the rapid outbreak of COVID-19 in Saudi Arabia. Questions focused on the signs, symptoms, transmission, prevention, and control of COVID-19. In addition, the attitudes and practices of the participants were explored. Descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) which followed by Tukey post-hoc test was conducted. Results: 2453 respondents participated in this study. 90.6% of them represent eastern of Saudi Arabia. Most of them had good knowledge about COVID-19. Better knowledge was among female, attitude improve significantly with age and knowledge was significantly higher among higher educational level. The practices of wearing a mask (80.6%) and keeping a safe distance from people in public places (82.5%) were common among the participants. Conclusion: Participants demonstrated good knowledge, optimistic attitudes, and practices toward most aspects of the COVID-19 outbreak. Suggesting that governmental efforts of health education about COVID-19 is helpful and important to control the disease.