Assessment of knowledge and apprehensions regarding COVID-19 vaccine among Health Care Workers attending a COVID vaccination centre of a Private Tertiary Care Centre, Kolkata: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: A massive global human disaster has been created by a contagious respiratory infectious disease caused by SARS CoV-2, which was classified as a pandemic by World Health Organisation (WHO). During this second wave of COVID-19, vaccination is utmost important for the healthcare workers to reduce the severity of the disease. Objective: The present study was done to study the socio-demographic profile of the health care workers attending a COVID vaccination centre and to assess the knowledge and apprehensions regarding COVID-19 vaccine among them. Methodology: An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted for 6 months. All the health care workers getting COVID-19 Vaccine in the chosen time span and health care workers giving consent for the study were included in the present study while those being sick or giving no consent were excluded. Results: In this study, around 33.8% of the study population were aged between 21—30 years, 84.6% resided in urban areas, 58% have taken the 2nd dose of vaccine in last one month, which showed a positive attitude and acceptance regarding COVID-19 vaccine among them. Around 97% have taken Covishield vaccine rather than Covaxin. None of the health care workers have reported AEFI, but some of them (14%) have suffered from mild fever, headache and body pain after taking the vaccine. Around 23% of them suffered from COVID-19 before vaccination but after vaccination 14% have reported about being infected. After vaccination, 58.5% of them thought they were “less likely” to get COVID-19. Most of the them (77%) know that only vaccination cannot end the disease. Almost all health care workers (97%) take the responsibility of encouraging other people to take the vaccine without any fear. Conclusion: The study shows that there are diminished worries among the healthcare workers regarding acquiring the Covid-19 infection after receiving the vaccines. All of them are quite familiar with the term ‘COVID Appropriate Behaviour’. Most of them are encouraging their colleagues, friends, relatives to take the vaccine as soon as possible which reveals their acceptance of Covid-19 vaccine.