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INTRODUCTION

Entering its 7th year, the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine is still active with 3.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The COVID-19 pandemic has further compounded the ongoing crisis; as of October 27th the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 had surpassed 350,000 in the country. Actors including the World Health Organization (WHO) and oblast administrations expect that this is an under-representation of the situation, with levels of testing roughly equivalent to one confirmed case for every 14 tests completed, substantially higher than the WHO-recommended 5% positive samples. The population in Ukraine is particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 outbreak, due to both an ageing population and high rates of chronic illness such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, heart disease, diabetes. Between the Government and Non-Government Controlled Areas (GCA and NGCA) of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, elderly individuals account for almost one third (32%) of people in need the highest proportion among humanitarian crises worldwide.

With the fastest-growing domestic number of COVID-19 cases during the month of September, community engagement in infection prevention and control (IPC) practices is essential to stemming the spread of the virus. To inform humanitarian partners responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Assessment (KAPA) was launched to evaluate the degree to which populations have access to and use information on COVID-19 and the recommended actions for reducing the risk of infection and transmission. It also seeks to understand household attitudes towards COVID-19 messaging, uptake of recommended preventative practices, as well as access to essential healthcare services and water and hygiene materials required to observe IPC measures. This second round focused on NGCA residents, and data collection and analysis were completed in partnership with the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) between 02 September and 11 October 2020. A total of 824 household surveys were completed via Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI) using stratified simple random sampling of non-comprehensive resident lists. Findings are therefore representative with a 95% confidence level and a 5% margin of error, but may not be generalisable to all households in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in NGCA. Settlements for the randomly selected respondents can be seen on the assessment coverage map to the right. The urban / rural split is intended to provide a reference for the distribution of assessed settlements but findings are not available for this distinction. Findings presented in this factsheet may not include answers such as "Don't know" or "Decline to answer" and total percentages may therefore not sum to 100%. The full activity terms of reference can be accessed at this link.

KEY FINDINGS

Roughly 25% of NGCA respondents either do not consider or do not know if COVID-19 is a contagious disease, or report COVID-19 to be not important at all or a little important only. In parallel, 4 respondents out of 10 report being very or extremely fearful of COVID-19 and 2 out of 10 believe that the likelihood to contract COVID-19 is very or extremely high.

Hand-washing (68%) and wearing a facemask (63%) were the two most frequently reported personal protective measures adopted by respondents of NGCA, followed by keeping a distance in public and avoiding crowded areas reportedly adopted by less than a third of all respondents.

As many as 4 respondents out of 10 felt that their communities have had little to no compliance with social distancing measures and less than one tenth reported feeling that their communities have complied to a great extent.

Respondents reported problems with transportation (14%), inability to visit relatives (9%) and the closure of Entry-Exit Checkpoints (EECPs) (6%) as some key COVID-19-related concerns. Other major concerns are economic in nature, with immediate needs (loss of job, of income) increasingly reported as compared to long-term economic perspectives (increase in the value of goods, economic decline).

Eight respondents out of 10 report feeling somewhat to extremely confident in the information available to them. However, two-thirds of respondents have reportedly heard conflicting information on COVID-19. Respondents report greater levels of trust towards family members (63%) and healthcare workers (54%) compared to other sources of information: national authorities (37%), local authorities (36%), local media (40%), social media (26%).

Ten per cent (10%) of respondents report problems in accessing healthcare and 5% in accessing mental health services

A significant proportion of respondents (84%) reported the absence of issues associated to the availability of hygiene items in their settlements, with sanitizers and masks being the two most frequently reported items that respondents were unable to buy (6%).

In the eventuality of a new outbreak, almost 8 in 10 respondents (76%) would either do nothing different or do not know if they would. The 25% remaining would instead stock up on food, medicines (to a greater extent in NGCA) or other personal protective equipment and disinfectant (to a greater extent in GCA for round 1).

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Ukraine: COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Assessment - Non-Government Controlled Areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, Round 2: October 2020 -...