Saudi Arabia – Eastern province COVID-19 Snapshot MOnitoring (COSMO Saudi Arabia – Eastern province): Monitoring knowledge, risk perceptions, preventive behaviours, and public trust in the current coronavirus outbreak in Saudi Arabia – Eastern province

In a crisis such as the 2020 outbreak of the newly emerged coronavirus, it is of utmost importance to monitor public perceptions of risk, protective and preparedness behaviours, public trust, as well as knowledge and misinformation to enable government spokespeople, the media, and health organizations to implement adequate responses. The purpose of this standard protocol for national serial cross-sectional studies is to allow rapid and adaptive monitoring of these variables over time and to assess the relations between risk perceptions, knowledge and misinformation to preparedness and protective behaviour regarding COVID-19 in each country implementing this study.

This study protocol is based on a standard protocol published by the World Health Organization/Regional Office for Europe, aimed at providing a general guidance on how to assess citizens’ knowledge, perceptions, and behaviour related to the COVID-19 outbreak. As the aims, objectives, and research questions are similar across countries, we refer the reader to the standard protocol regarding these issues. Herein, we will only describe aspects specific to the Saudi Arabia protocol.