Baseline knowledge and attitudes on COVID-19 among hotels’ staff: A cross-sectional study in Kigali, Rwanda

Background
The World Health Organization declared coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic on the 11th of March, 2020. Hotels and other public establishments have been associated with higher transmission rates. Sensitisation of staff and strengthening of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practices in such settings are important interventions. This study assessed the baseline knowledge and attitudes on COVID-19 among hotels’ representatives in Kigali, Rwanda.

Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted among hotels’ staff in Kigali in July 2020. A structured questionnaire was self-administered to 104 participants. Baseline knowledge and attitudes were assessed using a number of pre-test questions and mean scores were used to dichotomise the participants’ responses as satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Results
All of the 104 hotels’ staff completed the self-administered questionnaires. Sixty-seven percent (n = 70) were male and 58% (n = 60) were aged between 30 and 44 years. The satisfactory rate of correct answers was 63%±2.4 (n = 66) on knowledge and 68%±1.7 (n = 71) on attitudes evaluation. Participants with University education were more likely to have satisfactory knowledge (AOR: 2.6, 95% C.I: 1.07–6.58) than those with secondary education or less. The staff working in the front-office (AOR: 0.05; 95% CI 0.01–0.54) and housekeeping (AOR: 0.09; 95% C.I: 0.01–0.87) were less likely to have satisfactory attitudes than those working in the administration.

Conclusions
Hotels’ staff based in the capital of Rwanda have shown satisfactory knowledge and attitudes regarding appropriate IPC practices for preventing the COVID-19 transmission. Educational interventions are needed to improve their knowledge and attitudes for better prevention in this setting.