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The COVID-19 pandemic spotlighted the importance of infection prevention and control (IPC) measures. Existing literature focuses on healthcare professionals, whereas this article explores changes in public knowledge of IPC, where knowledge is comparably sparse.

National surveys were conducted before (March 2020) and after (March 2021) the COVID-19 lockdown across England.

A telephone survey of 1676 adults (2021) and a face-to-face survey of 2202 adults (2020) across England were conducted. Key demographics were representative of the population. Weighted logistic regression with composite Wald P-values was used to investigate knowledge change from 2020 to 2021.

Compared with 2020, significantly more respondents correctly stated that infections can spread by shaking hands (86% post vs 79% pre; P < .001) and that microbes are transferred through …