Comprehension, Perception, and Practice of Indians About COVID-19 Anticipating the Second Wave of the Pandemic

Background:  To assess knowledge, attitudes, practice and perceptions about COVID-19 among a convenience sample of the general public in India anticipating the second wave of the pandemic. Method:  This questionnaire-based survey was conducted among the general population quarantined at various institutional quarantine facilities in the city of Nagpur, Maharashtra, India. Informed consent was obtained from each participant. The self-designed questionnaire comprised 25 questions regarding knowledge, eight for attitude, and ten for practice. Knowledge questions were responded on a Yes/ No basis with an additional ‘don’t know’ option. The true answer was assigned with 1 point and false/I don’t know answers were assigned with 0 point. Results: Majority of the participants were aware of covid-19 (97.9 %). Majority of the participants did not either wash or knew how to properly dispose the used mask (88.02 %). Only 10.96 % of the participants actually agreed that they verify the social media posts shared over WhatsApp and Facebook on government authentic websites before sharing it with family and friends. Conclusions: Awareness about the virus, modes of spread, good practice, and an optimistic attitude is the prime requisite to curb the spread and to avoid the impending severity anticipating the second wave of the pandemic.