Attitudes and Practices of Indians during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: The SARS-CoV-2 led to a nationwide lockdown in India from 24^th March, 2020. It became important to identify people’s attitudes and practices to allow rapid change in health policies to alleviate stress factors. Objectives: To evaluate the attitudes, practices and sources of information and their perceived reliability from people residing in India. Methods: An online-based survey which asked respondents about the change in their practices due to the pandemic and their opinions on the measures taken to prevent spread of the virus. was conducted on 29^th March, 2020. 995 individuals (Average age – 42.8 years) responded from 24 states of India. Participants were invited to respond through the survey through dissemination of a link through online social media platforms. Only people who were residing in India were included in the study. Results: 58.6% were highly concerned about contracting the virus. 51.9% had stepped out during the lockdown period, most commonly to buy groceries (37.2%). 45% respondents faced mask shortages leading to prolonged use of the same mask (average 6.74 hours). 29.3% paid above the maximum retail price for their masks. Although people favored laws making self-isolation (95.2%) and mask wearing in public (81.5%) compulsory, support fell on introduction of a jail term for violating the law. Health care professionals were considered the most reliable source of information (4.42/5) followed by public health officials (4.03/5). However, 60.4% of the population used newspapers, magazines, etcetera for their information. Conclusion: People seem to rely on information sources that they themselves claim to be of inferior reliability. People generally support laws with fines to ensure prevention of virus transmission but do not support jail terms to these laws.