COVID-19 vaccination: Knowledge and perception of beneficiaries at a tertiary care center in Haryana, India

Abstract

Introduction

COVID-19 is an infectious and contagious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Despite the availability of vaccines,

there were reports of vaccine hesitancy among people, including healthcare workers. The study aims to assess the level of

knowledge about vaccines available in India, the perception of people towards COVID-19 vaccine and the experiences of

people who took the vaccine.

Methods

The study was carried out over a period of four months from 15th July 2021 to 15th November 2021. The sample size taken

was 500. It was an institution-based cross-sectional, non-interventional study carried out among the people visiting the

COVID-19 vaccination centre. The data collected using self-administered questionnaire was analysed using descriptive

statistics and nonparametric statistics in SPSS version 29.

Results

It was observed that only 6.3% (30) participants had adequate knowledge about COVID-19 vaccination, and the majority

(58.1%, 271) participants had poor knowledge. More than 60% of participants (61.6%, 294) reported having hesitancy to

take up the COVID-19 vaccination. Besides hesitancy, many factors like access to vaccines, protection from COVID-19

disease, fear of increasing COVID-19 cases and deaths etc. were the facilitating factors reported by participants for

COVID-19 vaccination uptake

Conclusion

More than half (61.6%) of the participants reported hesitancy towards uptake of vaccination owing to various side effects.

However, people also believed that vaccination could prevent the disease, and its free availability facilitated people to get

vaccinated. Various barriers leading to vaccine hesitancy and facilitators for a vaccination program should be identified

and addressed for the successful implementation of the program.