Is the Availability of Personal Protective Equipment a Predictor of COVID-19 Prevalence among Healthcare Workers in Rivers State?

Background: The covid -19 pandemic had major disruptions on the health systems of several states in Nigeria. While PPEs have been shown to provide effective barrier against the spread of diseases among care providers, the concern raised by their widespread lack in health facilities heightened during the pandemic.  Aim: To evaluate the availability of personal protective equipment as a predictor of covid-19 prevalence among healthcare workers in Rivers state. Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among healthcare workers in secondary and tertiary health facilities in Rivers state using a multi-stage sampling procedure between January 1, and July 31, 2021. A semi- structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the respondents after obtaining informed written consent. Data        obtained included, availability of different PPE and occurrence of Covid-19.  Data was analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Descriptive statistics were presented in tables, means and figures. Chi-square and Logistic regression models were done where applicable. A p-value of ≥0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: A total of 383 respondents were recruited for this study. The findings showed that hand gloves were readily available but the availability of other PPE was rather low. There was however no significant relationship between availability of COVID-19 PPE and COVID-19 prevalence among healthcare workers [f(1,354) = 3.102, p>0.05]. The study also revealed that higher cadre health workers were more likely to have PPE  [f(1,355) = 3.102, p<0.05]. Conclusion: PPE availability alone was not a significant predictor of COVID-19 prevalence as this may be influenced by other variables.