KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND UPTAKE OF COVID-19 VACCINATION AMONG STAFF AND STUDENTS OF PAMO UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA.

ABSTRACT Introduction: COVID-19, a highly infectious viral illness caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, resulted in a global pandemic in 2020. Control of COVID-19 depends on preventive measures such as vaccination. The study objective was to determine the knowledge, attitude and uptake of COVID-19 vaccination among staff and students of PAMO University of Medical Sciences. Methodology: A cross-sectional study design was adopted and stratified sampling was done to select 326 eligible participants for this study. Data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire and analysed using IBM SPSS version 30. Results: Results were presented in frequency tables with percentages. Majority of the participants were female (62.3%). 65.3% of participants were students and 34.75% were staff. 90.8% of participants had good knowledge of COVID-19, 18.7%, 29.1% and 37.7% had good knowledge of, attitude and uptake of COVID-19 vaccines respectively. Participant’s status was statistically significantly associated with knowledge of COVID-19 disease and COVID-19 vaccination, but there was no statistically significant association between participant’s status and attitude towards and uptake of COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: The study showed high level of good knowledge of COVID-19 which did not correspond with the level of knowledge of COVID-19 vaccine, attitude to vaccination and vaccine uptake which were low.