Community Responsiveness to Health and Social Protocols for Curbing the Spread of COVID-19 Pandemic in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States, Nigeria

This study examined community responsiveness to health and social protocols for curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States of Nigeria. Two (2) research questions and two (2) hypotheses were answered and tested in the study respectively. The design of the study was the descriptive survey and the population as the 3624 villages in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States. These states have a corresponding number of 3624 Village Heads from which 1087(30%) were selected as sample using the proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The subjects of the study responded to a 39-item instruments titled Community Responsiveness to Health and Social Protocols for COVID-19 Pandemic Curbing Scale (CRHSDCPCS), designed by the researchers in the modified 4-point Likert Scale model, with a reliability index of 0.85, obtained using Cronbach Alpha Statistical procedure. Mean and standard deviation were used in answering the research questions while z-test was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study show that, community responsiveness to health and social protocols for curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the two states was to a high extent 
and that no significant differences existed between the respondents on the extent of responsiveness to the protocols. The study concluded that communities made great efforts in adhering to the health and social protocols for curbing the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic through the extent of their adherence did not have a comparable balance. Consequently, it was recommended that, stakeholders in communities’ health and social protocols should continue to enlighten community residents on the need to adhere to health and social protocols during and after emergencies by showing good examples in their actions since the pandemic is yet to be over.