Social Media Efficacy on Prevention and Control of Covid-19 Pandemic in Ilorin South Local Government Area, Kwara State

This study investigated social media efficacy on prevention and control of Covid – 19 pandemic in Ilorin South Local Government Area, Kwara State. This study examines the effectiveness of awareness created by Facebook, NCDC messages, and Twitter on prevention and control of Covid – 19 pandemic in Ilorin South LGA, Kwara State. The study adopted a descriptive research design of survey type. A multi-stage sampling technique of stratified and purposive techniques was employed to select 150 respondents for the study. A researcher structured questionnaire validated and pilot tested with the use of test re-test reliability method and 0.75r were obtained. The findings revealed that awareness created through Facebook, NCDC, and Twitter has many impacts on the prevention and control of the Covid – 19 pandemic. Based on these findings, the study recommends that health officers should encourage people on the need to use social media tools like Facebook, NCDC messages, Twitter, Youtube and soon to gain insight on prevention and control of Covid – 19 pandemic.


INTRODUCTION
The coronavirus diseases of 2019 tagged covid-19 pandemic griped the world with shock by overwhelming the health system of most nations. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the novel human coronavirus disease covid-19 outbreak which began in Wuhan, China on December 8, 2019, as public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020 (WHO, 2020). The world registered over seven million cases from December 2019 to June 2020. In the United States, over 2 million cases were reported and in Africa, South Africa recorded over 54,000 cases and Egypt which recorded over 38,000 cases bear the greater brunt following the declaration made by the world health organization. In January the coronavirus preparedness group was constituted on January 31 in Nigeria. A country with 36 states and a federal capital territory (FCT) WHO categorized Nigeria as one of the 13 high-risk African countries concerning the spread of covid-19. Nigeria is also among the vulnerable African nations, given the weak state of the health care system (Africa News, 2020). The coronavirus is a contagious disease of global health importance that disrupts the usual norms of close physical contact since the disease is usually transmitted through contact with individuals who already contracted the disease. Covid-19 deglobalizes the world in terms of human migration with airports shut down and social events such as sports, festivals, and the like works were postponed indefinitely (Ren, Wang, Wu, Xiang & Guo, 2020). The stay-athome campaign and proscription of large social gatherings mean that social interaction has been limited.
The globalization that signifies compression of time and space aids the transmission of diseases on a global scale that facilitate the spread of covid-19. The world has also witnessed global restriction of movement of people from one country to another which serve as a means of preventing the spread of the covid-19 pandemic and the implication of this restriction of movement is the hunger that poses a threat to the wellbeing of all the citizens, (Tolbert, 2020). The government has strengthened disease surveillance at the airport since January 2020 to prevent a covid-19 outbreak, Nigeria recorded its first covid-19 index case that was imported from Italy on February 27. This raised concerns about the effectiveness of airport surveillance and by extension, the country's general preparedness. The first case was an index case of an Italian who visited some states in Nigeria before, it was confirmed through testing that he had brought covid-19 into Nigeria. This grossly exposed our inadequate preparedness to curtailed or stop the spread of covid-19 in the country (Benson, 2020).
As a result of this, the public health education and risk communication campaigns on coronavirus commenced in earnest with the reported index case of covid-19. Both conventional and social media, which include the use of WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook assisted the Nigerian government in disseminating updates and information towards the prevention of the spread of covid-19 (Obioma, Reuben & Elekwachi, 2020).
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (2020) provides regular updates on the outbreak with support from major telecommunication operators in the country. In addition to the campaign mounted against the covid-19 outbreak, there are sensitization programs' organized through social media platforms by some Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) which is online to educate and create more awareness on the spread of the covid-19 pandemic (Vraga, Bode & Tully, 2020) The NCDC usually published guidelines on the prevention and control of coronaviruses such as observing social distancing, safe hand washing, maintenance of personal and respiratory hygiene on the social medial tools like Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp, blog and short message services (SMS) on the covid-19 infection were equally translated into local languages to reach out to the general public on how to prevent and control this deadly virus (NCDC, 2020). The NCDC also went further to use a communication campaign with the theme "take responsibility on your safety by adhering to the covid-19 guidelines protocol. The NCDC uses a communication campaign to take responsibility on social media for all Nigerians. This is to emphasize the role of the individual both in the prevention of covid-19 and the social upkeep of their health while the pandemic lasts.
However, social media is an invaluable means of disseminating information to the citizenry hence it is a powerful tool of creating awareness on causes and prevention of disease outbreaks. It acts as a two-edged sword as it allows citizens to be privy to information without impediments (Tanne, Hayasake, Zastrow, Rulla & Smith, 2020; World Health Organisation 2020). Over the years, social media has become an active technological tool in Nigeria as well as a news and communication channel for the citizenry in Nigeria. Access to mobile telephones especially among the technologically endowed youths has made the dissemination of information easily with a snap of the finger (NCDC, 2020). In recent times, as the pandemic encroaches on, emasculates world activities on social media platforms have been utilized as an information outlet to citizens. Its significance has gained more recognition, especially during lockdown when the government implements the use of social media to curb the spread of the covid-19 virus. Thus, it has become an active tool for the engagement and communication of information on the prevention and control of the covid-19 pandemic when movements of people were restricted by imposing curfew (Orjinmo, 2020; Vraga & Bode 2010).
Social media is an offshoot of the internet and according to Hopkins (2020), the internet is refer to the electronic network that links people and information through computers and other digital devices thereby allowing person-to-person communication and information retrieval. The internet is a major tool that emerged for information dissemination, although, the media often act as an information hegemon in terms of determining what information is made available to the people as well as the impression people have on issues like an outbreak of diseases (Cui, Li, & Shi 2020;Bode & Vraga 2018

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Hypothesis one: Level of awareness through Facebook will not have significant impact on the prevention and control of covid-19 pandemic in Ilorin South Local Government Area, Kwara state.

CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
Based on the findings of this study, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) Awareness level of facebook messages have much impact on the prevention and control Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made; (1) The messages sent through the facebook should be properly to ensure accuracy as well as preventing fake news that would cause panic among members of the public; (2) The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) should not limit their SMS messages on the control and prevention of covid-19 pandemic alone but to other deadly diseases hindering healthful living., and (3) The dissemination of information should be curtailed by the government officials who are health workers and the Federal Ministry of Health so as to prevent fake news and images in circulation.