The responsibility for facts stated, opinion expressed or

conclusions reached and plagiarism, if any, in this book

is entirely that of the author(s). Neither the publishers nor the
editor will be responsible for them whatever.

ISBN : 978-93-87229-67-9 International Branches

Copyright : Editors
Edition : 2021
ABS Books
Publisher and Exporter
Yucai Garden, Yuhua Yuxiu
Community, Chenggong
District, Kunming City,
Yunnan Province -650500

Published by
ABS Books
ABS Books Publisher and Exporter
Publisher and Exporter
B-21, Ved and Shiv Colony, Budh Vihar Microregion Alamedin-1
Phase-2, Delhi - 110086 59-10 Bishek, Kyrgyz
 : +919999868875, +919999862475 Republic- 720083
 : absbooksindia@gmail.com
Website : www.absbooksindia.com

PRINTED AT
Trident Enterprise, Noida (UP)

All right reserved. No. Part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise , without the prior permission of the copyright owner Author/Editors. Application
for such permission should be addressed to the Publisher and Author/ Editors. Please do not
participate in or do not encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s
rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Covid Crisis : Social Science Perspectives

By : Abdul Matin
P.C. Joshi
B.I. Laskar
 17.
Awareness of COVID-19 in
India: A Survey
K. Kaveri Krishna, Manoj Kumar, Renu Bala and
Chanam Sonia Devi

C
Introduction 
OVID-19 is not just a medical pandemic, it is disrupting
the social order being a social event that was recognized in
Wuhan, China (Michelle Teti, 2020) (Samea Khan, 2020).
As per evidence, COVID-19 has a zoonotic source. There is no close
contact between humans and bats, hence it seems that transmission
of the virus to humans happened through another animal, one that is
often managed by humans. This zoonotic source could be a domestic
animal, a wild animal, or a domesticated wild animal, and yet it has
not been identified (World Health Organization, 2020). Till a proper
vaccine is discovered, people have to learn to remain ineffective from
the virus (T M Thomas Isaac, 2020). In India, after the lockdown
4.0, the number of cases will increase and 50 percent of the people
would suffer from the coronavirus by December-end. However, 90
percent of them would not even know that they have suffered the
infection (Awasthi P. , 2020). In India, as on 7th Jun 2020, the
total statistics of COVID-19, follows as active cases 1,20,406, cured
cases 1,19,292, and death are 6,929 (Ministry of Health and Family,
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 245

2020). Currently, one of the best options to treat is self-care and

awareness of this virus. That gives insight into this study. This
study is organized into five-section, the first section introduces the
COVID-19 background, and the second section reviews the previous
studies on COVID-19. The third section describes the data analysis,
and section four discusses the results and discussion of the study.
Section five concludes the study with the implication and limitations
of the study.
Review Literature
Robinson Ssebuufu (2020) has examined the awareness,
knowledge, attitude, and practice towards measures for prevention
of the spread of COVID-19 in Uganda. The data of 1763 participants
was collected with usage of online mode and a snowballing sampling
technique from 6th to 15th April 2020. The results of the regression
showed that a health worker was positively significantly associated
with awareness knowledge, attitude, and practice. On the contrary,
drivers, business entrepreneurs, and security personnel were not
so much positively associated with awareness, knowledge, attitude,
and practice. Mohit Varshney (2020) has analyzed the psychological
impact of Covid-19 in Indian. The data of 1106 participants was
collected from 26th to 29th March using a snowballing sampling
technique, with the usage of Event–revised scale by online mode.
The study found that there was a significant psychological impact of
COVID-19 on 33 percent of the respondents, especially, in the younger
age, female gender, and people who had multiple physical diseases.
Arina Anis Azlan (2020) has examined knowledge, attitudes, and
practices towards the COVID-19 in Malaysia. The data of 4850
participants was collected from social media from 27th March to 3rd
April 2020. The study found that successful control on COVID-19
in Malaysia was because of the positive attitude of people and the
Malaysian government efforts to handle the virus, and participants
were following practices of social distance, hand hygiene, whereas the
wearing mask was not so common only 51.2 percent of respondents
were wearing masks. Yohannes Kebede (2020) has pointed out that
Knowledge, perceptions, and practices among the Jimma university
medical center, 247 of visitors data based on a consecutive sampling
data was collected from 20- 24 March 2020. The study found that
41.3 percent of the visitors had good knowledge. The study suggested
that the COVID-19 risk communication and public education
must be focused on generating appropriate knowledge rather than
246 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

recommending self-care practices, especially in high-risk category

people. Junling Gao (2020) has shown a relationship between the
mental health problems and social media exposure of 4872 of chinses
participants during the virus outbreak. The data was collected by
online mode from 31st January 2020 to 2nd February 2020. The study
confirmed a positive and statistically significant association between
mental health problems and social media exposure. Iman A. Bashetia
(2020) has examined awareness level and source of information to
manage the coronavirus of 726 pharmacists and pharmacy students
in Jordan. The data was collected by online mode from 15th to 30th
March 2020. The study found that that pharmacists were more aware
then students, and level of awareness was positively associated with
the age and number of attending educational workshops. The source
of information of some respondents was community pharmacies
whereas for the rest it was media. Daniel Kwasi Ahorsu (2020) has
developed a 7-item scale to assess fear of the COVID-19. 717 Iranian
were asked for the interview to check the validity and reliability
of the scale, and the scale was rechecked with a psychometric test.
The Ethics Committee of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences
had approved all the procedures of the scale. The study found that
this scale has robust psychometric properties to assess the fear of
individuals.
After reviewing the previous studies, it was observed that many
researchers are exploring different dimensions of the virus on society
including psychological, awareness, source of information, symptoms
people attitude, and scale development of measuring the fear of the
virus. Therefore, the current study is exploring one of the awareness
aspects of COVID-19 in India.
Methods and Material
This study is based on primary data which has been collected from
an online structure questionnaire. The collected sample size was 348
who were asked to fill the questionnaire across the selected state of
India and instructed the same on the phone before answering. Later
on, it was found that 18 respondents were not fit for analysis. After
removing 18 respondents this study considered 330 respondents.
This study used a convenience sampling technique, and time period
of the data collection was from 2nd to 6th June 2020. The statistical
analysis was performed with Excel.
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 247

Data Analysis 
The current section of the study is giving visualization of the data
analysis. This data analysis is considering the demographic profile,
awareness of respondents, and preventive measures including, hand
hygiene, mask, and gloves wearing, and symptoms of COVID-19.

Fig. 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents

Gender Age group

Education
Occupation

Source: Primary Data

Fig. 1 result shows that 78.8 percent of the respondents are from
the 18-35 age group and 16.7 percent are from 36-58 age group. This
survey comprises 40 percent of post graduate, 31.5 percent of are
graduate, 17.6 percent are of Ph. D, 8.2 percent are 12th and the rest
are from below 10th, Ph.D., diploma, and M. Phil holders. Further,
this survey comprises 55.2 percent of male respondents and 44.8
percent female. As per occupation, 42.1 percent respondents are from
service, 41.8 percent are students, and rest are from other professions.
248 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

Fig. 2 Information, Preventive Measures, Symptoms and Cure

Information Source of COVID-19 Preventive Measures of Health

Department

Do You Know Where to Go If You Measures of Health Department

Start Developing Symptoms to Cure the Infected

Source: Primary data

Fig. 2 shows that the primary source of information of COVID-19

was acknowledged (37 percent of respondents) from Social media,
(30.9 percentage) from Television News, (13.9 percent) from
Newspaper, (8.8 percent) from government official websites and
rest (9.4 percent) from other sources like public health banners,
friends and family, from doctors and independent journalism in
YouTube. As per the results, we can see that 52.1 percent of the
respondents believe that the Indian health department is doing
enough to prevent the COVID-19 from spreading. Further, we can
say that 54.2 percent of respondents believe that the India health
department is taking enough care of the infected and to prevent the
virus. As per the results, 71.8 percentage respondents know where
to go for treatment of the virus, when they get symptoms. Whereas
8.5 percentage of the respondents have no idea where to go and 11.2
percent of the respondents know the people who might know where
to go for treatment.
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 249

Fig. 3: Awareness of Mask, Gloves, Hand Hygiene, and Antibiotics

Wearing Gloves Help to
Wearing a Mask Help
Prevent the Spread of
to Prevent the Spread of

91D
C
O
-V
I 9C
1O
D
V
-I

Can COVID-19 be
Hand Hygiene Help to Prevent the Cured with Antibiotics?
Spread of COVID-19

Source: Primary data

Fig. 3 results show that 78.2 percent of respondents believe that

wearing a mask is important in preventing the spread of the virus.
Whereas 16.7 percent of the respondents are unsure and 5.2 percent
of the respondents don’t believe that wearing gloves can prevent the
virus from spreading. Further, it was observed that 65.8 percent of
respondents believe that wearing gloves is important in preventing
the spread of the virus. Whereas 24.2 percent of the respondents are
unsure and 10 percent of the respondents don’t believe that wearing
gloves can prevent the virus from spreading. As per the results, 88.8
percent of respondents believe that hand hygiene is important in
preventing the spread of the virus. Whereas some of the respondents
are unsure and some don’t believe that hand hygiene can prevent
the virus from spreading. Further, it was found that 14.5 percent
of respondents believe that antibiotics can cure the virus. Whereas
48.5 percent of the respondents are unsure, and 37 percent of the
respondents don’t believe that antibiotics can cure the virus
250 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

Fig.4: Rating Based on the Measures Taken by Indian Health Department

Source: Primary data

Fig. 4 shows that to understand the Indian health department

during the COVID-19, respondents were asked to rate the measures
taken by the health department through a 5-point rating scale.
Whereas 1 was for terrible, 2 was for not bad, 3 was for neutral, 4 was
for very good and 5 was for amazing. It was observed that most of the
respondents were neutral on all the following measures as health
and hygiene awareness, screening and tests to detect the virus,
availability of hospitals, availability of healthcare professionals, and
quality of treatment of COVID-19.

Fig. 5: Symptoms of COVID-19

Source: Primary data

 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 251

Fig. 5 results show that people are aware of COVID-9, but most
of them are aware about cough, fever, shortness of breath, and sore
throat (87, 87.3, 81.8, and 77.9 percent of respondents respectively).
Results and Discussion
After data analyzing it was found that the primary source of
information of COVID-19 was social media followed by television. The
people are well aware of self-care and prevention of the COVID-19
like the usage of hand hygiene, wearing gloves and masks. When
respondents were asked about the different measures of the Indian
health care department including health and hygiene awareness,
screening and tests to detect the virus, availability of hospitals,
availability of healthcare professionals, and quality of treatment.
The study found that most of the respondents remained neutral.
The health department is not encouraging in terms of medical
infrastructure as it could be. Still, there is a need to understand the
importance of the health care system. As per the main symptoms
of COVID-19 including cough (87 percent), fever (87.3 percent),
shortness of breath (81.8 percent), sore throat (77.9 percent), and
cold (72.1 percent). The study found that most of the respondents
were aware of the symptoms. Further, it was found that respondents
are aware of where and how to get the treatment.
Implications of this Study 
The Indian government needs to invest more in medical
infrastructure including medical staff, laboratory, research, and
development. Generally, a physician should go for telemedicine, to
cover each corner of the country. There is a need to work on the
emerging area of public health where the people can survive and
prevent any kind of diseases either small or fatal.
Limitation of the Study
This study is limited to up to 330 respondents because of time
and financial constraints. Further, research data can be increased in
terms of respondents for covering more cities including metropolitan
and non- metropolitan for generalization of results.
Acknowledgement: The authors are thankful to all the respondents
for their contribution in the study.
Bibliography
Robinson Ssebuufu, F. K. (2020, May 9). Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude, and
Practice towards Measures for Prevention of the Spread of COVID-19
252 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives
in the Ugandans: A Nationwide Online Cross-Sectional Survey.
medRxiv, 1-28.
Mohit Varshney, J. T. (2020, May 29). Initial psychological impact of COVID-19
and its correlates in Indian Community: An online (FEEL-COVID)
survey. (A. M. Samy, Ed.) PLoS ONE , 15(5), 1-10.
Yohannes Kebede, Y. Y. (2020, May 21). Knowledge, perceptions and preventive
practices towards COVID-19 early in the outbreak among Jimma
university medical center visitors, Southwest Ethiopia. PLoS ONE,
15(5), 1-15.
Arina Anis Azlan, M. R. (2020, May 21). Public knowledge, attitudes and
practices towards COVID-19: A cross-sectional study in Malaysia.
PLoS ONE, 15(4), 1-15.
Junling Gao, P. Z. (2020, April 16). Mental health problems and social media
exposure during COVID-19 outbreak. PLoS ONE, 15(4), 1-10.
Iman A. Bashetia, R. N. (2020, April 21). Pharmacists’ readiness to deal with
the coronavirus pandemic: Assessing awareness and perception of
roles. Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, 30(40), 1-9.
Samea Khan, M. K.u.H. (2020, March 29). Is Pakistan prepared for the
COVID19 epidemic? A questionnairebased survey. 1-9.
Daniel Kwasi Ahorsu, C.-Y. L. (2020, March 27). The Fear of COVID-19 Scale:
Development and Initial Validation. International Journal of Mental
Health and Addiction, 1-9.
World Health Organization. (2020, April 23). Coronavirus disease 2019
(COVID-19) Situation Report – 94(Data as received by WHO from
national authorities by 10:00 CEST, 23 April 2020). Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-
reports/20200423-sitrep-94-covid-19.pdf
Awasthi, P. (2020, May 20). 50% of Indians will have Covid-19 by Dec, 90% will
never know about it: Report. Mumbai.
Ministry of Health and Family. (2020, Jun 4). COVID-19 Statewise Status.
Delhi, India.
T M Thomas Isaac, R. S. (2020, May 23). COVID-19, Public Health System and
Local Governance in Kerala. Economic & Political Weekly, LV(21),
35-40.
Michelle Teti, E. S. (2020). Methods in the Time of COVID-19: The Vital Role of
Qualitative Inquiries. International Journal of Qualitative Methods,
19, 1-5.
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 253

Appendix

Table A1: Statistics of COVID-19 In India (As on 7th June 2020)

Active Cases Cured/Discharged Deaths Total
120406 119292 6929 246627
49% 48% 3% 100%
Source: (Ministry of Health and Family, 2020).

Table A1 indicates that in India the active cases are 120406 and
till now cured are 119292. The death cases are 6929.

Table A2: COVID-19 State wise Status (As on 5th June 2020)
Sr. Name of State/UT Active Cured/ Death** Total
No. cases* Discharged/ Confirmed
Migrated* Cases*
1 Andaman and Nicobar 0 33 0 33
Islands
2 Andhra Pradesh 1546 2466 68 4080
3 Arunachal Pradesh 37 1 0 38
4 Assam 1255 413 4 1672
5 Bihar 2288 2077 25 4390
6 Chandigarh 82 214 5 301
7 Chhattisgarh 478 188 2 668
8 Dadar Nagar Haveli 7 1 0 8

9 Delhi 13497 9542 606 23645

10 Goa 22 57 0 79
11 Gujarat 4766 12212 1122 18100
12 Haryana 1842 1089 23 2954
13 Himachal Pradesh 204 150 5 359
14 Jammu and Kashmir 1816 1007 34 2857
15 Jharkhand 426 321 5 752
16 Karnataka 2496 1514 53 4063
17 Kerala 832 651 11 1494
18 Ladakh 41 48 1 90
19 Madhya Pradesh 2772 5445 371 8588
254 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

20 Maharashtra 39944 32329 2587 74860

21 Manipur 80 38 0 118
22 Meghalaya 19 13 1 33
23 Mizoram 13 1 0 14
24 Nagaland 58 0 0 58
25 Odisha 965 1416 7 2388
26 Puducherry 57 25 0 80
27 Punjab 300 2029 47 2376
28 Rajasthan 2699 6744 209 9652
29 Sikkim 2 0 0 2
30 Tamil Nadu 11348 14316 208 25872
31 Telangana 1365 1556 99 3020
32 Tripura 295 173 0 468
33 Uttarakhand 795 282 8 1085
34 Uttar Pradesh 3324 5176 229 8729
35 West Bengal 3583 2580 345 6508
Total# 106737 104107 6075 216919
Source: (Ministry of Health and Family, 2020).

Table A2 Indicates in terms of people death due to the COVID-19

most affected states of India are in Maharashtra 2587, in Gujarat
1122, in Delhi 606, in Madhya Pradesh 371, in West Bengal 345, in
Uttar Pradesh 229, in Rajasthan 209, and in Tamil Nadu it is 208. 
The other side less affected states of India with zero death rate
are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Goa,
Tripura and Union territories Andaman Nicobar Islands, Dadar
Nagar Haveli, Puducherry.

qqq
 The responsibility for facts stated, opinion expressed or
conclusions reached and plagiarism, if any, in this book
is entirely that of the author(s). Neither the publishers nor the
editor will be responsible for them whatever.

ISBN : 978-93-87229-67-9 International Branches

Copyright : Editors
Edition : 2021
ABS Books
Publisher and Exporter
Yucai Garden, Yuhua Yuxiu
Community, Chenggong
District, Kunming City,
Yunnan Province -650500

Published by
ABS Books
ABS Books Publisher and Exporter
Publisher and Exporter
B-21, Ved and Shiv Colony, Budh Vihar Microregion Alamedin-1
Phase-2, Delhi - 110086 59-10 Bishek, Kyrgyz
 : +919999868875, +919999862475 Republic- 720083
 : absbooksindia@gmail.com
Website : www.absbooksindia.com

PRINTED AT
Trident Enterprise, Noida (UP)

All right reserved. No. Part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise , without the prior permission of the copyright owner Author/Editors. Application
for such permission should be addressed to the Publisher and Author/ Editors. Please do not
participate in or do not encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s
rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

Covid Crisis : Social Science Perspectives

By : Abdul Matin
P.C. Joshi
B.I. Laskar
 17.
Awareness of COVID-19 in
India: A Survey
K. Kaveri Krishna, Manoj Kumar, Renu Bala and
Chanam Sonia Devi

C
Introduction 
OVID-19 is not just a medical pandemic, it is disrupting
the social order being a social event that was recognized in
Wuhan, China (Michelle Teti, 2020) (Samea Khan, 2020).
As per evidence, COVID-19 has a zoonotic source. There is no close
contact between humans and bats, hence it seems that transmission
of the virus to humans happened through another animal, one that is
often managed by humans. This zoonotic source could be a domestic
animal, a wild animal, or a domesticated wild animal, and yet it has
not been identified (World Health Organization, 2020). Till a proper
vaccine is discovered, people have to learn to remain ineffective from
the virus (T M Thomas Isaac, 2020). In India, after the lockdown
4.0, the number of cases will increase and 50 percent of the people
would suffer from the coronavirus by December-end. However, 90
percent of them would not even know that they have suffered the
infection (Awasthi P. , 2020). In India, as on 7th Jun 2020, the
total statistics of COVID-19, follows as active cases 1,20,406, cured
cases 1,19,292, and death are 6,929 (Ministry of Health and Family,
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 245

2020). Currently, one of the best options to treat is self-care and

awareness of this virus. That gives insight into this study. This
study is organized into five-section, the first section introduces the
COVID-19 background, and the second section reviews the previous
studies on COVID-19. The third section describes the data analysis,
and section four discusses the results and discussion of the study.
Section five concludes the study with the implication and limitations
of the study.
Review Literature
Robinson Ssebuufu (2020) has examined the awareness,
knowledge, attitude, and practice towards measures for prevention
of the spread of COVID-19 in Uganda. The data of 1763 participants
was collected with usage of online mode and a snowballing sampling
technique from 6th to 15th April 2020. The results of the regression
showed that a health worker was positively significantly associated
with awareness knowledge, attitude, and practice. On the contrary,
drivers, business entrepreneurs, and security personnel were not
so much positively associated with awareness, knowledge, attitude,
and practice. Mohit Varshney (2020) has analyzed the psychological
impact of Covid-19 in Indian. The data of 1106 participants was
collected from 26th to 29th March using a snowballing sampling
technique, with the usage of Event–revised scale by online mode.
The study found that there was a significant psychological impact of
COVID-19 on 33 percent of the respondents, especially, in the younger
age, female gender, and people who had multiple physical diseases.
Arina Anis Azlan (2020) has examined knowledge, attitudes, and
practices towards the COVID-19 in Malaysia. The data of 4850
participants was collected from social media from 27th March to 3rd
April 2020. The study found that successful control on COVID-19
in Malaysia was because of the positive attitude of people and the
Malaysian government efforts to handle the virus, and participants
were following practices of social distance, hand hygiene, whereas the
wearing mask was not so common only 51.2 percent of respondents
were wearing masks. Yohannes Kebede (2020) has pointed out that
Knowledge, perceptions, and practices among the Jimma university
medical center, 247 of visitors data based on a consecutive sampling
data was collected from 20- 24 March 2020. The study found that
41.3 percent of the visitors had good knowledge. The study suggested
that the COVID-19 risk communication and public education
must be focused on generating appropriate knowledge rather than
246 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

recommending self-care practices, especially in high-risk category

people. Junling Gao (2020) has shown a relationship between the
mental health problems and social media exposure of 4872 of chinses
participants during the virus outbreak. The data was collected by
online mode from 31st January 2020 to 2nd February 2020. The study
confirmed a positive and statistically significant association between
mental health problems and social media exposure. Iman A. Bashetia
(2020) has examined awareness level and source of information to
manage the coronavirus of 726 pharmacists and pharmacy students
in Jordan. The data was collected by online mode from 15th to 30th
March 2020. The study found that that pharmacists were more aware
then students, and level of awareness was positively associated with
the age and number of attending educational workshops. The source
of information of some respondents was community pharmacies
whereas for the rest it was media. Daniel Kwasi Ahorsu (2020) has
developed a 7-item scale to assess fear of the COVID-19. 717 Iranian
were asked for the interview to check the validity and reliability
of the scale, and the scale was rechecked with a psychometric test.
The Ethics Committee of Qazvin University of Medical Sciences
had approved all the procedures of the scale. The study found that
this scale has robust psychometric properties to assess the fear of
individuals.
After reviewing the previous studies, it was observed that many
researchers are exploring different dimensions of the virus on society
including psychological, awareness, source of information, symptoms
people attitude, and scale development of measuring the fear of the
virus. Therefore, the current study is exploring one of the awareness
aspects of COVID-19 in India.
Methods and Material
This study is based on primary data which has been collected from
an online structure questionnaire. The collected sample size was 348
who were asked to fill the questionnaire across the selected state of
India and instructed the same on the phone before answering. Later
on, it was found that 18 respondents were not fit for analysis. After
removing 18 respondents this study considered 330 respondents.
This study used a convenience sampling technique, and time period
of the data collection was from 2nd to 6th June 2020. The statistical
analysis was performed with Excel.
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 247

Data Analysis 
The current section of the study is giving visualization of the data
analysis. This data analysis is considering the demographic profile,
awareness of respondents, and preventive measures including, hand
hygiene, mask, and gloves wearing, and symptoms of COVID-19.

Fig. 1: Demographic Profile of Respondents

Gender Age group

Education
Occupation

Source: Primary Data

Fig. 1 result shows that 78.8 percent of the respondents are from
the 18-35 age group and 16.7 percent are from 36-58 age group. This
survey comprises 40 percent of post graduate, 31.5 percent of are
graduate, 17.6 percent are of Ph. D, 8.2 percent are 12th and the rest
are from below 10th, Ph.D., diploma, and M. Phil holders. Further,
this survey comprises 55.2 percent of male respondents and 44.8
percent female. As per occupation, 42.1 percent respondents are from
service, 41.8 percent are students, and rest are from other professions.
248 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

Fig. 2 Information, Preventive Measures, Symptoms and Cure

Information Source of COVID-19 Preventive Measures of Health

Department

Do You Know Where to Go If You Measures of Health Department

Start Developing Symptoms to Cure the Infected

Source: Primary data

Fig. 2 shows that the primary source of information of COVID-19

was acknowledged (37 percent of respondents) from Social media,
(30.9 percentage) from Television News, (13.9 percent) from
Newspaper, (8.8 percent) from government official websites and
rest (9.4 percent) from other sources like public health banners,
friends and family, from doctors and independent journalism in
YouTube. As per the results, we can see that 52.1 percent of the
respondents believe that the Indian health department is doing
enough to prevent the COVID-19 from spreading. Further, we can
say that 54.2 percent of respondents believe that the India health
department is taking enough care of the infected and to prevent the
virus. As per the results, 71.8 percentage respondents know where
to go for treatment of the virus, when they get symptoms. Whereas
8.5 percentage of the respondents have no idea where to go and 11.2
percent of the respondents know the people who might know where
to go for treatment.
 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 249

Fig. 3: Awareness of Mask, Gloves, Hand Hygiene, and Antibiotics

Wearing Gloves Help to
Wearing a Mask Help
Prevent the Spread of
to Prevent the Spread of

91D
C
O
-V
I 9C
1O
D
V
-I

Can COVID-19 be
Hand Hygiene Help to Prevent the Cured with Antibiotics?
Spread of COVID-19

Source: Primary data

Fig. 3 results show that 78.2 percent of respondents believe that

wearing a mask is important in preventing the spread of the virus.
Whereas 16.7 percent of the respondents are unsure and 5.2 percent
of the respondents don’t believe that wearing gloves can prevent the
virus from spreading. Further, it was observed that 65.8 percent of
respondents believe that wearing gloves is important in preventing
the spread of the virus. Whereas 24.2 percent of the respondents are
unsure and 10 percent of the respondents don’t believe that wearing
gloves can prevent the virus from spreading. As per the results, 88.8
percent of respondents believe that hand hygiene is important in
preventing the spread of the virus. Whereas some of the respondents
are unsure and some don’t believe that hand hygiene can prevent
the virus from spreading. Further, it was found that 14.5 percent
of respondents believe that antibiotics can cure the virus. Whereas
48.5 percent of the respondents are unsure, and 37 percent of the
respondents don’t believe that antibiotics can cure the virus
250 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

Fig.4: Rating Based on the Measures Taken by Indian Health Department

Source: Primary data

Fig. 4 shows that to understand the Indian health department

during the COVID-19, respondents were asked to rate the measures
taken by the health department through a 5-point rating scale.
Whereas 1 was for terrible, 2 was for not bad, 3 was for neutral, 4 was
for very good and 5 was for amazing. It was observed that most of the
respondents were neutral on all the following measures as health
and hygiene awareness, screening and tests to detect the virus,
availability of hospitals, availability of healthcare professionals, and
quality of treatment of COVID-19.

Fig. 5: Symptoms of COVID-19

Source: Primary data

 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 251

Fig. 5 results show that people are aware of COVID-9, but most
of them are aware about cough, fever, shortness of breath, and sore
throat (87, 87.3, 81.8, and 77.9 percent of respondents respectively).
Results and Discussion
After data analyzing it was found that the primary source of
information of COVID-19 was social media followed by television. The
people are well aware of self-care and prevention of the COVID-19
like the usage of hand hygiene, wearing gloves and masks. When
respondents were asked about the different measures of the Indian
health care department including health and hygiene awareness,
screening and tests to detect the virus, availability of hospitals,
availability of healthcare professionals, and quality of treatment.
The study found that most of the respondents remained neutral.
The health department is not encouraging in terms of medical
infrastructure as it could be. Still, there is a need to understand the
importance of the health care system. As per the main symptoms
of COVID-19 including cough (87 percent), fever (87.3 percent),
shortness of breath (81.8 percent), sore throat (77.9 percent), and
cold (72.1 percent). The study found that most of the respondents
were aware of the symptoms. Further, it was found that respondents
are aware of where and how to get the treatment.
Implications of this Study 
The Indian government needs to invest more in medical
infrastructure including medical staff, laboratory, research, and
development. Generally, a physician should go for telemedicine, to
cover each corner of the country. There is a need to work on the
emerging area of public health where the people can survive and
prevent any kind of diseases either small or fatal.
Limitation of the Study
This study is limited to up to 330 respondents because of time
and financial constraints. Further, research data can be increased in
terms of respondents for covering more cities including metropolitan
and non- metropolitan for generalization of results.
Acknowledgement: The authors are thankful to all the respondents
for their contribution in the study.
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 Awareness of COVID-19 in India: A Survey 253

Appendix

Table A1: Statistics of COVID-19 In India (As on 7th June 2020)

Active Cases Cured/Discharged Deaths Total
120406 119292 6929 246627
49% 48% 3% 100%
Source: (Ministry of Health and Family, 2020).

Table A1 indicates that in India the active cases are 120406 and
till now cured are 119292. The death cases are 6929.

Table A2: COVID-19 State wise Status (As on 5th June 2020)
Sr. Name of State/UT Active Cured/ Death** Total
No. cases* Discharged/ Confirmed
Migrated* Cases*
1 Andaman and Nicobar 0 33 0 33
Islands
2 Andhra Pradesh 1546 2466 68 4080
3 Arunachal Pradesh 37 1 0 38
4 Assam 1255 413 4 1672
5 Bihar 2288 2077 25 4390
6 Chandigarh 82 214 5 301
7 Chhattisgarh 478 188 2 668
8 Dadar Nagar Haveli 7 1 0 8

9 Delhi 13497 9542 606 23645

10 Goa 22 57 0 79
11 Gujarat 4766 12212 1122 18100
12 Haryana 1842 1089 23 2954
13 Himachal Pradesh 204 150 5 359
14 Jammu and Kashmir 1816 1007 34 2857
15 Jharkhand 426 321 5 752
16 Karnataka 2496 1514 53 4063
17 Kerala 832 651 11 1494
18 Ladakh 41 48 1 90
19 Madhya Pradesh 2772 5445 371 8588
254 Covid Crisis: Social Science Perspectives

20 Maharashtra 39944 32329 2587 74860

21 Manipur 80 38 0 118
22 Meghalaya 19 13 1 33
23 Mizoram 13 1 0 14
24 Nagaland 58 0 0 58
25 Odisha 965 1416 7 2388
26 Puducherry 57 25 0 80
27 Punjab 300 2029 47 2376
28 Rajasthan 2699 6744 209 9652
29 Sikkim 2 0 0 2
30 Tamil Nadu 11348 14316 208 25872
31 Telangana 1365 1556 99 3020
32 Tripura 295 173 0 468
33 Uttarakhand 795 282 8 1085
34 Uttar Pradesh 3324 5176 229 8729
35 West Bengal 3583 2580 345 6508
Total# 106737 104107 6075 216919
Source: (Ministry of Health and Family, 2020).

Table A2 Indicates in terms of people death due to the COVID-19

most affected states of India are in Maharashtra 2587, in Gujarat
1122, in Delhi 606, in Madhya Pradesh 371, in West Bengal 345, in
Uttar Pradesh 229, in Rajasthan 209, and in Tamil Nadu it is 208. 
The other side less affected states of India with zero death rate
are Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Goa,
Tripura and Union territories Andaman Nicobar Islands, Dadar
Nagar Haveli, Puducherry.

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