ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic, with no definitive treatment in sight, continues to ravage the world. Development of COVID-19 vaccine has thus become a global public health necessity in containing the pandemic. Fortunately, several candidate COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and approved for vaccination. However, the success of these vaccines with the subsequent development of herd immunity will be dependent on the acceptance and uptake level. In recent times, there has been a growing anti-vaccine movement, it is therefore imperative to explore the barriers and drivers of uptake of COVID-19 vaccine to help the government, policy makers, and health care workers mitigate the impact of probable low vaccine uptake.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the knowledge, attitude towards, level of uptake and factors that affect level of uptake of COVID-19 among healthcare workers in University of Benin Teaching Hospital in view to provide a scientific based study to proffer recommendations to facilitate uptake.
METHODOLGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was utilized for this study among healthcare workers in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo state. Four hundred and eight respondents were selected using a stratified sampling technique. Data was collected with the use of a structured self – administered questionnaire. Data was analysed with IBM SPSS version 25.0 and quantitative variables were expressed in tables and charts.
RESULT: The study revealed that of the respondents who were aware of the existence of COVID-19 Vaccines, 94.6% had good knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine, 91.7% had a positive attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccines. As at the time of conducting this study, 59.3% of the respondents had not taken the COVID-19 vaccine.
CONCLUSION: The study revealed that over ninety percent of the respondents had good knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine. Over ninety percent of the respondents had positive attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine. Age, Level of Education and Marital status were found to be statistically significant in determining level of uptake of the vaccine. Two fifths of the respondents had not taken the COVID-19 vaccine. There is a need for Government to procure more vaccines and for healthcare workers to sensitive the public on the advantages of being vaccinated and encouraging those that are indecisive or averse to receiving COVID-19 vaccines to get vaccinated.
KEYWORDS: Knowledge, Attitude, Uptake, Vaccine, Healthcare workers, COVID-19, Benin City
