Community and health care workers’ perceptions of Covid-19 and the vaccine in Eswatini

Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy is an issue of public health concern requiring urgent and efficacious interventions given the pathogenicity of the pandemic. This rapid assessment qualitatively assessed Eswatini community members’, community leaders’, and health care workers' (HCWs’) understanding of and perceptions toward Covid-19 and their readiness for the Covid-19 vaccine. Pact conducted the assessment in 14 purposively selected Tinkhundla centers and 17 health facilities spread across the country’s four regions. Data were collected from 347 participants (233 community members and leaders and 114 HCWs) who participated in 42 focus group discussions (28 for community leaders and members and 14 for HCWs) that were held in either Siswati, English or a combination of both languages. Focus group discussions were recorded, transcribed translated to create the analytical dataset, then analyzed thematically.