The COVID-19 has emerged as a serious danger to countries worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) designated the SARS-COV (2) pandemic as the world's sixth most serious public health emergency. Beyond the high morbidity and mortality rates, the unprecedented negative consequences of COVID-19 have triggered an economic downturn, health disparities, health inequities, and a decline in behavioral health across communities worldwide (Kontopantelis et al, 2021).
In the last wave of COVID-19 Pakistan faced with 1,289,913 confirmed cases and 28,843 deaths as of December 15th, 2021. A total of 1,251,778 cases were recorded as recovered, with a total of 22,646,130 tests conducted for a population of about 216.6 million people in the country (Gop, 2021). Border countries, such as Iran and India, are particularly hard hit, with a large number of fatalities (Saqlain et al, 2020). On February 26, 2020, the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Pakistan was announced for an Iranian traveler. Iran was the region's first worst-hit country at the time, and pilgrims returning from Iran formed the first significant cluster of imported Coronavirus illnesses. A significant portion of SARS-COV-2 infection in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh were traced to participation in the Islamic missionary congregation in the town of Raiwind in early March 2020 (Bedi, 2020; Noreen et al, 2020). By mid-March 2020, huge highly populated cities like Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar had begun to see high rates of transmission.
Preventive measures need to be highly effective in Pakistan, given the country's low resources and poor health infrastructure, and the country's inability to manage the health emergency caused by the enormous increase in COVID-19 cases. Pakistan invests 2% of its GDP on healthcare, or $40 per resident each year. In comparison, India spends $62 and Iran spends $415 per inhabitant (Noreen et al, 2020; WHO, 2020a). Spending alone will not bring this condition under control. Despite its increased per capita healthcare spending, Iran is confronting a developing COVID-19 crisis. The scientific evidence strongly suggests that effective control of the current pandemic will necessitate strategies that include systematic surveillance, prevention strategies such as lockdowns, leveraging social determinants of health, and raising awareness through smart technology solutions (Kusuma et al, 2021; Waterfield et al, 2021). In Pakistan, the telecommunications authorities sends SMS messages to the general public on a regular basis to encourage individuals to wash their hands and practise social distance. Other attempts implemented by Pakistani public health officials include contact tracing via mobile monitoring and replacing usual ringtones with an awareness message to the caller about the risks of Covid-19 and preventive measures to prevent transmission.
Social distancing, school closures, the use of gloves, masks, and sanitizers, and avoiding social gatherings have all been shown to be successful in controlling the transmission of COVID-19 (Esposito et al, 2020; Hou et al, 2020). The media can play an essential role in informing and convincing the public to use these preventive measures effectively (Merchant, 2020; Brindha et al, 2020). Furthermore, with the growing popularity of social media, public health professionals can use it to communicate information on emerging research and safety measures with the general public. There were over 3.6 billion users in 2020, with a projected growth to 4.41 billion users by 2025 (Patwa et al, 2020). The major sources of information during SARS-COV(2) was included social media (Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Youtube, and Instagram), television, radio, friends, and family, and last the newspapers (Wang et al, 2020). During COVID-19, the socially isolated people benefited heavily from media for information related to the COVID-19 (Sarault, 2020).
Print and social media also contributed to a "infodemic," which blurred the boundary between scientific and disinformation about the virus and the pandemic. The public relied heavily on media’s information irrespective of their authenticity. Immediately after declaring COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency, the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesusat said in a conference “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic”. The term "infodemic" refers to a global pandemic of disinformation/false information spreading rapidly through social media platforms, creating a severe hazard for public health (Cinelli et al, 2020; WHO, 2020b). During the management of disease outbreaks, infodemic not only impedes pandemic control efforts, but it can also hasten epidemic progression by negatively influencing social response and people's behavior. The essential impact of this new information environment on the creation of societal perceptions, opinion formation, and the spread of bogus COVID-19 cures has been seen in the current major worldwide public health issue. Misconceptions concerning the spread and prevention of COVOVID-19 potentially jeopardize the success of government public health agencies' initiatives and programs (Cinelli et al, 2020; Erku et al, 2021). During the COVID-19 pandemic, fake news convinced many to take life-threatening measures. For example, in Iran, believing that alcohol is a remedy for COVID 19 led to hundreds of deaths and hospitalizations (Wang et al, 2020). Other misguided "treatments" for COVID-19 included drinking methanol, cocaine, Brazil's chloroform and ether-based drug 'loló,' enduring temperatures above 25° Celsius, and taking vitamins C and D (Erku et al, 2021).
In recent times social media has become a major source of disseminating information to the public. Many people will experience isolation during hospitalization or when quarantining at home [Pappot et al,2020]. Social media is an efficient source of information and an effective means for staying abreast of the vast amount of medical knowledge [McGowanet al,2012]. Globally, approximately every country has been affected with Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), as of August 25th, with a reported 214.7 million cases and 4.5 million fatalities(Worldometer, 2021).38.2 million cases and 629 thousand fatalities have been recorded in the United state (CDC, 2021). The pandemic has a profound impact on every aspect of life, significantly burdening social, health and economic systems (ICAO, 2021). On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the United Nations declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic, where there were 118,000 cases spread to 110 countries(J. Ducharme,2020). Europe became the epicentre of the pandemic by March 15, 2020, with 156,400 cases reported in 142 countries[John Hopkins, 2020; BBC, 2020; J. Horton,2020].. The number of cases increased to 181,121 in 155 countries day by day. A day After the number of cases jumped to 196,106[John Hopkins, 2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020]. The total number of confirmed cases jumped to 2,072,113 by 15th April, with 510,122 recoveries and 138,475 fatalities in 185 regions[John Hopkins,2020;BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020].. The number of confirmed cases doubled in a month, where there were 4,621,410 cases with 1,756,657 recoveries and 308,042 fatalities in 188 regions by May 15, 2020[John Hopkins,2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020]. The number of cases reached 8,128,247 with 4,228,194 recoveries and 442, 457 fatalities by 15th June[John Hopkins,2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020].. There were 13,405,694 cases with 7,451, 312 recoveries and 580,552 fatalities by 15th July[John Hopkins,2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020]. These figures show the dramatic increase from 118,000 cases to 13,405,694 cases in four months[John Hopkins,2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020].. Asia was the centre of the epidemic by February, which was followed by Europe in March, where Latin America declared the centre of the epidemic by WHO on 22nd May[John Hopkins,2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020].. These figures show the significant increase and the spread of COVID-19 within 3 months. The United States (3,465,031 cases), Brazil (1,926,824 cases), India (936,181 cases), Russia (745,197 cases) and Peru (333,867 cases) were the countries with the highest number of confirmed cases by mid-July 2020 [John Hopkins,2020; BBC,2020; J. Horton,2020].
To address the misinformation that has arisen as a result of the pandemic, there is an urgent need for more effective and personalized communication techniques that deliver accurate and reliable information to the public, ensuring that they take the necessary precautions to manage the disease. The current study seeks to generate data-driven information about risk factors for the transmission of COVID-19 and to examine the influence of media on infection prevention behaviors and attitudes in the general population of Pakistan's Punjab region.