Knowledge, awareness and perception of covid-19 pandemic among health care workers in a tertiary care teaching hospital in coastal South India

Background: It is crucial for the frontline force such as health care workers to be up-to-date with the knowledge of the trend of COVID-19 pandemic and its epidemiology. We conducted this study to assess the knowledge, awareness and perception of health care workers towards the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional survey in the hospitals of coastal Karnataka among health care workers from February to May 2020. Results: A total of 197 Health care workers responded. Most of them were females (64%), physicians (45%), with a working experience of 1-10 years (77%). Five percent had a prior experience of the outbreak. The survey showed that the study participants had knowledge about treatment and precautions to be taken. However, some of them were not aware of the recent updates on quarantine and sample testing. Most of them perceived this pandemic as an important public health issue and were concerned that they might get infected in the course. Conclusion: There is a partial knowledge among HCWs regarding recent updates on COVID-19 pandemic and its related epidemiology. Hence, frequent sessions with the help of virtual media may be utilized to provide updates, and counseling sessions by experts may be arranged to reduce the fear of the pandemic.