COVID-19 awareness of personnel working in mass consumption establishments

At the end of December 2019, numerous cases of unknown pneumonia were reported in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spread worldwide. This disease, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen, was defined as the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization, deeply effected commercial and social life. To prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19, recommendations from the WHO were implemented, and countries established their own rules accordingly. Besides general and personal hygiene measures, social distancing rules and mandatory mask-wearing in crowded places were enforced in many countries. In this research, a survey was conducted on 385 personnel working in restaurants and eateries in the Aydın/Efeler district to measure their awareness of COVID-19 precautions. The findings revealed that 91.2% of the participants pay attention to personal hygiene in their daily lives, 91.9% wash their hands before/after meals, 87.3% wash their hands after returning home, 69.4% wash their hands or use hand sanitizer after contact with others, 77.1% avoid touching their eyes, mouth, nose, etc., 72.5% pay attention to decontaminating surfaces in their surroundings, 70% maintain a distance between two individuals, 80.3% keep at least a 2-meter distance from anyone coughing or sneezing, 76.1% believe that people should wear masks to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, and 60.8% think that non-mask wearers should face penalties. In conclusion, it was observed that participants' awareness regarding masks and social distancing is not as high as their awareness of hygiene measures. Keywords: Awareness, COVID-19, Restaurant, Survey