A survey on awareness towards the new COVID-19 variants

Pages: 206-209
Anjana Goyal1, Reena Doomra2, Natalia Thakran3, Megha Monga4, Rohit Raj5, and Saiyam Gupta6
(Department of Biochemistry, Manav Rachna Dental College, Faridabad, Haryana1,3,,4,5,6, and Department of Pharmacology, Manav Rachna Dental College, Faridabad, Haryana2)

To fight any battle the basic yet one of the most important weapon is self-awareness. This was well observed in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as the cases per day started going down globally, not forgetting the selfless service of the concerned authorities. Now the new variants have been discovered, it was decided to conduct a survey in order to test the awareness of students of Manav Rachna Dental College (MRDC), Faridabad towards the New Covid-19 Variants. This was done through an online survey, and data was studied and analysed to get a picture how well aware the young minds were. A total of 230 students had given their assent to take part in this online survey. The questionnaire was made through Google forms and was distributed via WhatsApp and other social media platforms. It included a total of 18 questions each testing the awareness of students towards the new Covid-19 variants. A variety of responses were obtained from the survey form. Their study revealed that most of the students were aware of the new Covid-19 variants and had knowledge about their so far discovered virulence properties and vaccine response but more than half of them didn’t have an idea about their origin. Almost all were highly aware of the basic safety protocols of Covid-19 and its common symptoms. Also, it was surprising as well as satisfying to see that those who were not aware had keen interest in learning about these variants. Most of the students were well aware of the so far discovered virulence nature, vaccine response of the new Covid-19 variants but only half of them actually knew about their name and origin.