Adaptation to Stay-at-Home Situation during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study on the Faculty Members of the Universities in Bangladesh ()
1. Introduction
The whole world is going through the aggression of a hidden enemy; a highly contagious, lethal, pathogenic respiratory viral infection [1] called the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). After the first emergence of the virus in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019, on January 20, 2020, it was feared by the Chinese experts to have a major outbreak through human to human transmission [2]. With the increasing number of cases, transmission, severity, and considering the risks of spreading to other countries, WHO declared the COVID-19 as a global emergency on January 30, 2020 addressing the need for coordinated international response to fight against the deadly virus [2] [3]. In the months of February and March, almost all the countries were detected of having confirmed COVID-19 cases [3] and COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 [4] [5]. As of August 31, 2020, it took a total of 844,312 lives and infected over 25,118,689 individuals all over the world after its emergence [6]. Bangladesh is not an exception to experience the horrifying pandemic situation with the total death of 4281 and 312,996 confirmed cases of COVID-19 from its first emergence on March 8, 2020, up to August 31, 2020 [7].
SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV), H5N1 influenza A, H1N1 2009, and Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) are all members of coronaviruses [1], but with high and unknown transmissibility, severity in mortality and morbidity and biological natures SARS-CoV-2 is found different from SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV [8] [9]. As with unknown pattern of transmission and different biological features of COVID-19 [8] [9], the absence of clinically approved antiviral drug or vaccine [1] has posed a threat to human life and health and made a quite challenging situation for all the countries to prevent it [10].
In the absence of a potential and clinically approved drug or vaccine, during the emergence of a pandemic potential novel influenza a virus, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are taken to help slow transmission of the virus in the community [11]. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, NPIs are mitigation actions that people and communities can adapt to slow down the spread of respiratory diseases like pandemic influenza apart from getting vaccinated or taking medicine [12]. As the COVID-19 virus is mainly transmitted through saliva droplets or nose discharges of an infected person, contact, and aerosols [13] [14], NPIs are considered very effective to contain the spread of the virus [15] and suggested to follow until the discovery of the vaccine. NPIs can be taken at all levels from individual to the community which includes, proper handwashing, sneezing etiquette, isolation of sick people, social distancing measures such as the closing of schools, working from home, canceling, and restricting public gatherings, etc. [11] [15]. By reducing the person-to-person transmission, delaying the epidemic peak, buying some time to withstand the crisis, relieving pressure on the healthcare system, these mitigative measures are considered as crucial components of the public health response to influenza pandemics [16]. Studies have shown that social distancing measures such as isolation or quarantine of infected people, school closure, banning of public gatherings, etc. were very much effective in reducing the transmission during the 1918-19 pandemic in the US [17] [18]. Also, during SARS, MERS, 2009-10 epidemic, Ebola, social distancing measures were found to be effective [11] [19] [20] [21] [22]. Observing the effectiveness of nonpharmaceutical interventions during outbreaks, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends activating them if any virus strain case is confirmed in an area or region [23].
With the coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan at first went to initiate its NPIs with a lockdown on January 23, 2020, with other cities of Hubei province [2]. With the increasing severity and high transmissibility of COVID-19 and absence of a vaccine, almost every country has adopted aggressive nonpharmaceutical interventions like mandatory lockdown, work from home, school closure, social distancing, international travel bans, school closure, etc. to contain the virus [24]. To contain the virus and reduce transmission, Bangladesh also followed NPIs like other countries [24]. Starting with the reduced international flight and border closure, Bangladesh announced on 16 March that all kinds of educational institutions to remain closed from March 17, 2020 [25] and went to a countrywide lockdown from March 26, 2020, declaring a public holiday [26]. WHO (2020) advised people to maintain proper hygiene, handwashing, maintain physical distancing, and mostly to stay at home [27]. Protecting the community from exposure to the virus, people were encouraged to stay at home [8] and billions of people were staying at home as an adaptation measure to fight the COVID-19 [24]. The Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina urged people to stay at home and obey the protective measures while declaring the public holiday to contain the spreading of the new coronavirus [28].
Staying at home probably sounds very comfortable. But during a pandemic situation, staying at home for a long time may not be comfortable or economically feasible for a poor country. Several studies [15] [29] showed that staying at home is very much effective in containing the virus at some level. All these implications greatly depend on the reaction, perception, and attitude of the community people and vary from community context whether they are finding these measures useful or not [30].
As the concept is very much new to the context of Bangladesh, our study intends to explore how the faculty members of different universities of Bangladesh have adapted to the stay at the home situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. Methodology
2.1. Study Context, Target Group, Sampling and Data Collection
The study followed a quantitative method. A web-based self-administered survey was conducted to collect the data from the participants. A semi-structured questionnaire was prepared by using the google doc form where both open-ended questions and closed-ended questions were asked. The survey was conducted to analyze the COVID-19 perception and the adaptation strategies to the stay-at-home situation that were being carried out by the respected faculty members of different universities in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire was divided into four sections, e.g., personal information, perception of COVID-19, household characteristics, and general stay-at-home situation. The ethical issues related to the survey were considered to comply with the WHO guidelines on the “monitoring knowledge, risk perceptions, preventive behaviors, and trust to inform COVID-19 pandemic outbreak response” [31]. The faculty members of public and private universities in Bangladesh were approached to participate in the survey via email, explaining the purpose, ethical ground, and the questionnaire link. Data were collected from May 30 to August 30, 2020. A list of total study samples (i.e., 40 universities from which faculty members responded) is presented in Table 1. A total of 163 responses were received, among which 161 responses were considered for this study as the other two responses were incomplete.
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Table 1. Total sample universities under the study.
2.2. Measurement and Analysis
Apart from the direct graphical representation of the found results in percentages and proportions, the responses with multiple options being recorded from a single respondent for a particular question were explored by cross-tabulation.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Demographic Profile of the Respondents
The demographic profile of the respondents is shown in Figure 1. The survey was dominated by male faculty members. It was realized that about three-fourths of the respondents were male (Figure 1(a)). As per Figure 1(b), the majority of the respondents hold the position of Assistant Professor (42%) in their respective institutions. Figure 1(c) shows that about 60% of the respondents hold up to a master’s degree. The stay-at-home condition at the household level and the geographical location of stay are shown in Figure 2. More than half of the respondents are staying home with their spouse and children and the second dominant family structure is comprised of parents and siblings (Figure 2).
3.2. Perception on COVID-19
The perception of the respondents on the COVID-19 outbreak and spread was recorded through the survey. From Figure 3(a), the result shows that 51% of the
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Figure 1. Demographic profile of the respondents of the survey. (a) Gender; (b) Position in the institution; (c) Educational qualification.
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Figure 2. Household characteristics during stay-at-home. (a) Stay-at-home period: with whom staying; (b) Location of stay.
respondents are informed of the virus through electronic media and the second dominant source of knowledge was social media (41%). Two-thirds of the respondents were not much familiar with the terms isolation, lockdown, quarantine, physical or social distancing before the pandemic (Figure 3(b)). People with breathing difficulties (~51%) and people aged 56 years and above (~40%) are at the peak of health risk according to the respondents as shown in Figure 3(c). Figure 3(d) and Figure 3(e) present the prevention and safety perceptions of the respondents on how to prevent or slow down the spread and how to maintain the safety of the family. Most of the respondents preferred to stay at home when feeling sick, self-isolation, maintain physical and social distancing, wash hands, take shower, disinfect things as preventive measures. These safety and prevention perceptions are in line with the findings by PAHO (2020) as well as Wang (2020) [15] [29].
3.3. Adaptation to Stay-at-Home Situation
The adaptation strategies followed by the respondents show a wide range of variations
(Figure 4). While 98% of the respondents keep themselves updated on the COVID-19 news, more than half (~57%) have the sole responsibility of going out mostly once a week (~30%). Almost 80% are found to be developing new skills, more than 90% of the respondents are aware of safe removal of trash daily and most of them are positive (~43%) and compelled (~43%) to the new lifestyle as
there are no other options. About 86% think that it is not the sole responsibility of the government to manage the situation, while about 83% think that the purpose of staying home is not fulfilled in our case.
The respondents of the study have reported both positive and negative impacts of staying home (Figure 5 and Figure 6). The top positive impacts are spending time with family members, working for self-development and research, helping with household chores, doing pending tasks, and getting some rest after long. The reported negative impacts on top are stress, anxiety, feeling upset, and helplessness. The other adverse impacts are lack of helping hand for household chores as well as lack of socialization. More than one-third of the respondents (~38%) reported that they could not go home due to lockdown, home quarantine, and self-isolation.
3.4. Interaction with Students and Online Class
As Figure 7 shows 96% of the respondents are in regular interaction with the students, 57% of them are taking online classes even if most of them (45%) are not sure of the effectiveness of the online classes.
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Figure 7. Interaction and online class with the students. (a) Interaction with the students; (b) Whether taking online class; (c) Effectiveness of online class.
3.5. Life after COVID-19 Crisis or Life with COVID-19 Crisis
More than half of the respondents (87) have not commented on this part. Some of the important comments are discussed here. The majority who commented think that life will be more stressful, uncertain, and troublesome after the COVID-19 crisis. Careful preparedness, awareness-raising, systematic management, and monitoring, as well as priority in the health sector in the government policy, are emphasized by the respondents. About 10% of the respondents who commented pointed out the weakness in government policies and strategies regarding COVID-19 management. A positive attitude towards the new normal, youth leadership besides government activities and extended use of technology in health, education, and economy is appreciated by some of the respondents.
4. Conclusion
The study revealed a structured pattern of adaptation strategies and consequences through the responses being involved. As the respondents belong to academia, the reflection of their actions and opinions are influential for others, the positivity towards the new normal situation in particular. Considering the intensity of this global pandemic, every single human being should be aware of it, taking the safety measures and hygiene practices guideline by the WHO as long as a permanent solution in the form of the effective vaccine comes out. Until then reducing the exposure by staying home and working from home have to be prolonged under these circumstances.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the respondents of the questionnaire survey, without whom this study would not have been possible.