A Cross-Sectional Study to Assess Awareness and Practices Related to Prevention of COVID-19 Amongst Local Vendors around Medical and Dental Establishments

INTRODUCTION: Even as the world is returning to normalcy after COVID-19, there is still a need to be cautious and adopt proper hygiene practices and social distance norms. AIM: To assess the awareness and practices related to prevention of Covid-19 amongst local vendors around medical and dental establishments in Northern India. MATERIALS AND METHOD: This cross-sectional study was conducted over a period of  one month using a pre-tested and pre-validated questionnaire. Vendors near ten medical and dental establishments in north India were contacted by standardized volunteers to prevent bias. They were located within the range of 250 meters on both sides of these facilities through convenience sampling.  Data was coded, entered in MS excel, descriptive statistics were applied. Statistical tests included the student’s independent t-test and multiple logistic regression. P value was kept significant at <0.5 and software used was SPSS version 23.0. RESULTS: Most vendors were males (76.7%), were operating shops on rent (47.7%) and had passed middle school (40.2%). A Majority of them were aware of common symptoms (99.4%), while 90.1% were aware about the mode of transmission. All vendors knew about the availability of the vaccine (100%). and 78.2% of the vendors were fully vaccinated, while 04 (1.3%) were not vaccinated yet. However, only 60% (p=0.03) of the vendors practised hand washing, distancing from sick, no handshake, use a cloth while coughing/sneezing as preventive measures. CONCLUSION: There is still a need for continuous education of the food vendors regarding proper and hygienic practices as well as mask wearing to fight off this dreaded pandemic and return to normalcy as soon as possible.