Municipal COVID-19 Epidemiological Response: Level of Satisfaction among Households in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat

This study was carried out to statistically quantify the level of satisfaction among residents in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat, and the level of effectivity of the municipal COVID19 epidemiological response team on COVID19 response. In the Philippines, from the initial studies and information about the nature and behavior of the virus, the government settles on a plan of action around what mitigation strategies and control measures to implement. This present study was conducted to find out the level of satisfaction among the 30 selected respondents from seven reachable rural barangay in Esperanza, the Philippines in terms of food support, public health and safety protocols, as well as news and updates dissemination. Based on the result of the study, the level of effectiveness in terms of food support, implementation of public health and safety protocols, as well as news and updates dissemination is described as satisfied. It implies that the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response team is effective. The result of this study will create a huge impact in the field of COVID-19 response in the Philippines, making the government aware of their plans such as mitigation strategies and control measures implemented, knowing the sentiments of the Filipino citizen amid a pandemic. © 2021 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Article History: Received 21 Mar 2021 Revised 7 Apr 2021 Accepted 11 Apr 2021 Available online 11 Apr 2021 ____________________ Keyword: COVID-19, Esperanza Sultan Kudarat, Epidemiological, Food support, Level of satisfaction, News and updates dissemination Public health and safety Protocols, Response Indonesian Journal of Community and Special Needs Education Journal homepage: http://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJCSNE/ Indonesian Journal of Community and Special Needs Education 1 (2) (2021) 53-58 Lasanas,E., Garcia.,. Municipal COVID-19 Epidemiological Response: Level of ... | 54 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10. 17509/xxxxt.vxix pISSN 2775-8400 eISSN 2775-9857


A B S T R A C T S A R T I C L E I N F O
This study was carried out to statistically quantify the level of satisfaction among residents in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat, and the level of effectivity of the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response team on COVID-19 response. In the Philippines, from the initial studies and information about the nature and behavior of the virus, the government settles on a plan of action around what mitigation strategies and control measures to implement. This present study was conducted to find out the level of satisfaction among the 30 selected respondents from seven reachable rural barangay in Esperanza, the Philippines in terms of food support, public health and safety protocols, as well as news and updates dissemination. Based on the result of the study, the level of effectiveness in terms of food support, implementation of public health and safety protocols, as well as news and updates dissemination is described as satisfied. It implies that the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response team is effective. The result of this study will create a huge impact in the field of COVID-19 response in the Philippines, making the government aware of their plans such as mitigation strategies and control measures implemented, knowing the sentiments of the Filipino citizen amid a pandemic.

INTRODUCTION
The emergence of COVID-19 pandemic has caused havoc world-wide. Many researchers have reported the ways how to against Covid-19 pandemic (Machmud and Minghat, 2020;Putra and Abidin, 2020;Anggraeni et al., 2020;Razon, 2020;Hamidah et al., 2020;Hashim et al., 2020;Dirgantari et al., 2020;Mulyanti et al., 2020;Sangsawang, 2020;Hasanah et al., 2020). Countries and governments have faced the challenge of implementing response strategies to manage local transmission (Lau et al., 2020). In the Philippines, the government settle on a plan of action around what mitigation strategies and control measures to implement. Given the initial studies and information about the virus, responses to these cases must strictly observe and implement. Hence, this study was carried out to determine the level of satisfaction among residents in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat on municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response. Kilbourn (2006) stated that the researchers must situate their work in relation to existing research. To accomplish Kilbourn's directive, this study referred to the following researches: a. the adequacy of the Philippine response on COVID-19 (Albert, J.R.), b. evaluation on existential crisis of Filipinos during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis (Nicomedes et al., 2020;Galanakis, 2020;Guida, 2020) c. sentiment analysis of Filipinos to coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic (Pastor, 2020), d. Philippines' Pandemic Response: A Tragedy of Errors. (Beltran, 2020). e. impact of the COVID-19 crisis on households in the Philippines. However, there is no study regarding the level of satisfaction of the citizen on Covid-19 epidemiological response.
The purpose of this study is to quantify the level of effectivity of municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response to meet the level of satisfaction among the respondents. It is unique from the existing studies as it focuses on the level of satisfaction on COVID-19 response, the level of effectivity of COVID-19 response team and its significance in the field of COVID-19 response in Philippines.

METHODS
This study was designed as survey research under quantitative research approach. Purposive sampling design was utilized in this study. There were 30 selected respondents from seven reachable rural barangay in the municipality of Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat. Figure 1 shows the data gathering procedure. The first step taken was to ask the respondent's consent to be involved in the research. The data was gathered through an indepth online survey. To be accredited in gathering data, the researchers notified the participants through a consent form containing the information of the study. Google form was used to the gather data. After data gathering, the researchers immediately treated the data with statistical tools appropriate for the statement of the problem.  Table 1 reveals the level of effectivity of the municipal COVID -19 epidemiological response team of Esperanza. In terms of food support, the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response team of Esperanza is effective with a mean of 3.515 and a standard deviation of 1. In terms of the implementation of public health and safety protocols, the COVID-19 response team is effective with a mean of 3.79 and standard deviation of 0.87. Likewise, the news and updates dissemination is also effective with a mean of 3.75 and standard deviation of 0.97. Therefore, the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response team of Esperanza with the total mean of 3.69 and standard deviation of 0.95 in favor of the 30 selected household is statistically proven effective. Table 2 shows the level of satisfaction among the respondents on the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response of Esperanza. In terms of food support, the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response of Esperanza is neutral with a mean of 3.34 and a standard deviation of 1.04. In terms of the implementation of public health and safety protocols, respondents is satisfied with a mean of 3.69 and standard deviation of 0.92. On the other hand, the respondents on the news and updates dissemination is neutral with a mean of 3.59 and standard deviation of 0.93. Therefore, the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response of Esperanza with the total mean of 3.69 and standard deviation of 0.95 in favor of the 30 selected household is statistically proven satisfied.

Level of satisfaction among the households in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat on municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response.
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the order of urban life because of the necessity of socializing to reduce the spread of disease. On the other hand, food services, security, medical care, news and updates are needed by the community (Guida, and Carpentieri, 2021;Rahimi & Talebi, 2020). Therefore, the distribution of public services is also clearly needed to ensure the survival of the community during a pandemic.   Table 3 justifies that there is a significant relationship between the level of effectivity of the municipal COVID -19 epidemiological response team and level of satisfaction of the municipal COVID -19 epidemiological response among the respondents as implied by the Pearson Correlation test at 0.05 level of significance. It also implies a very strong linear relationship with a Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.99. Therefore, the null hypothesis is rejected.

The Relationship between the Level of Effectivity and Level of Satisfaction among Households in Esperanza, Sultan Kudarat on the Municipal Covid-19 Epidemiological Response
COVID-19 is an infectious disease that requires priority treatment (Song et al., 2020). Therefore an effective epidemiological response from the government is urgently needed. The results of this study have shown good handling of the pandemic that occurred. This is evidenced by a good level of community satisfaction.

CONCLUSION
Pursuant to the results of the study, the following conclusions were made, the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response team of Esperanza is effective, the level of satisfaction among the respondents on municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response is satisfied. There is a significant relationship between the level of satisfaction and efficacy of the municipal COVID-19 epidemiological response.