Objective : The objective of this study was to assess the willingness of the community to visit health facilities for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) related symptoms and to identify the associated factors in southwest Ethiopia.

Method : A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in three zones (Bench Sheko, Kafa, and West Omo) of southwest Ethiopia from May 1 to 31, 2020. Using a multistage sampling technique, we have selected 845 eligible participants. The interviewer administered tool, which was adapted from the WHO resources and related literature, was used to collect the data. Willingness to visit health facility was dependent variable. The independent variables include socio demographic characteristics (age, sex, residence, educational status, occupation, marital status and family size), knowledge of COVID-19, attitude towards COVID-19, practice of COVID-19 prevention methods, perceived susceptibility to COVID-19 and perceived severity of COVID-19. Descriptive analyses were done to summarize the findings. Binary logistic regression was employed to identify associated factors. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with its respective p value and 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to measure the strength of the association. P value of 0.05 was used to declare the final significance.

Results: In this study, 803 respondents participated making a response rate of 95%. More than three fourth (77%) of the participants, reported that they will visit health facility for sore throat. Likewise, 55.4%, 62.4% and 88.5% reported that they will visit health facility for fever, cough and difficulty of breathing respectively. Generally, 57% of the participants had willingness to visit health facility for COVID-19 symptoms. The independent determinants of the respondents’ willingness to visit health facility include female sex (AOR=1.96; 95%CI: 1.14, 2.51), urban residence (AOR=6.09; 95%CI: 3.56, 10.41), good COVID-19 knowledge (AOR=4.32; 95%CI: 2.69, 6.92), and good COVID-19 prevention practice (AOR=1.64; 95%CI: 1.09, 2.48). Moreover, merchants (AOR=1.96; 95%CI: 1.14, 2.51), government employees and students had higher odds of willingness to visit health facility for COVID-19 symptoms compared to unemployed participants.

Conclusion and Recommendation: The willingness of the community to visit health facilities for COVID-19 related symptoms was found to be low. Not preferring health facilities may result in severe outcomes and facilitate the coronavirus transmission. Thus, different innovative approaches should be designed to encourage visiting health facility focusing on rural residents and unemployed segment of the population.