An Assessment of The Knowledge, Risk Perception, Public Trust and Preventive Practices Among Construction Workers Towards Covid-19

Abstract

As 2019 drew to a close, reports emerged of an outbreak of pneumonia of unknown cause, with cases clustered around Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market that sold live fish, poultry and birds (Osler, 2019). The first cases were observed as of December 8th but a first case was reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in China on 31 December 2019 (WHO, 2020). The market was shut down on 1 January 2020 and on 7th January a new type of Corona Virus was detected by the Chinese authorities (Osler, 2019). The outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020. On 11 February 2020, World Health Organization announced a name for the new coronavirus disease “COVID-19”. Subsequently, it was named SARS-CoV-2. According to the World Health Organization (2020), the full genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 from the early human cases and the sequences of many other viruses isolated from human cases from China and all over the world since then show that SARS-CoV-2 has an ecological origin in bat populations. Despite the increasing number of positive cases of COVID-19, construction works at the Tororo-Cement Round-About Construction Project continued. This posed a health risk to the construction workers, the neighboring community, their families, and other third parties. Construction workers face an elevated risk of COVID-19 virus due to exposure in close-knit and unhygienic worksite conditions. The site is located in Tororo District where over 40 cases have been detected at the Malaba Boarder Point and at least 2 positive cases within the community (as of 19. May 2020). Right next the site is a designated parking yard for the cargo trucks which receives over 300 trucks per day. The site is along a major highway next to a crowded peri-urban area. The site is also near porous borders which are characterized with smuggling and illegal entries into the country without any prior COVID-19 screening or testing.