Table 3.
Descriptive analysis of HCWs' awareness and knowledge of the Omicron variant.
| Variable |
True
no. (%) |
False
no. (%) |
Neither true/false
no. (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Omicron variant is more transmissible than Delta (True) | 848 (66.0%) | 94 (7.3) | 343 (26.7) |
| “Omicron” is one of the letters of the Greek alphabet (True) | 674 (52.5) | 81 (6.3) | 530 (41.2) |
| The Omicron virus spike protein has 22 mutations (True) | 362 (28.2) | 211 (16.4) | 712 (55.4) |
| SARS-CoV2 Omicron variant signs and symptoms are the same as the original SARS-CoV-2 variant (False) | 722 (56.2) | 292 (22.7) | 271 (21.1) |
| SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations are expected (True) | 1,094 (85.1) | 23 (1.8) | 168 (13.1) |
| The Omicron variant causes more severe disease than the original variant (False) | 493 (38.4) | 374 (29.1) | 418 (32.6) |
| People who have previously had COVID-19 could become reinfected more easily with Omicron (True) | 480 (37.4) | 269 (20.9) | 536 (41.7) |
| COVID-19 mRNA vaccines (Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna) might be less effective against the Omicron variant (not confirmed in the literature) | 376 (29.3) | 258 (20.1) | 651 (50.7) |
| COVID-19 vector-based vaccines (AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S) might be less effective against the Omicron variant (not confirmed in the literature) | 290 (22.6) | 233 (18.1) | 762 (59.3) |
| Therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies might be less effective against the Omicron variant (not confirmed in the literature) | 251 (19.5) | 154 (12.0) | 880 (68.5) |
| Variable | Frequency | Percentage | |
| To the best of your knowledge, where was the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant first identified? | |||
| UK | 15 | 1.2 | |
| USA | 16 | 1.2 | |
| South Africa | 1,197 | 93.2 | |
| China | 47 | 3.7 | |
| India | 10 | 0.8 | |
| Participants' self-rated familiarity with the Omicron variant * | 3.24 (0.95) | ||
| Participants' self-rated familiarity with the Delta variant * | 3.50 (0.99) | ||
| Participants' sources of information about the Omicron variant | |||
| Hospital announcements (e.g., roll-ups or newsletters) | 488 | 38.0 | |
| Official statements or press releases from MOH (e.g., through SMS or newspapers) | 527 | 41.0 | |
| MOH website | 647 | 50.4 | |
| WHO website | 662 | 51.5 | |
| CDC website | 395 | 30.7 | |
| Saudi CDC | 430 | 33.5 | |
| Social networks (such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, etc.) | 633 | 49.3 | |
| Scientific journals | 369 | 28.7 | |
| Other sources | 205 | 16.0 | |
*
Mean (SD).