The biggest threat to the effectiveness of vaccination initiatives is a lack of information about and trust in immunization. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of knowledge of and positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine in Ethiopia. PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and the Ethiopian University online library were searched. To look for heterogeneity, I2 values were computed and an overall estimated analysis was carried out. Although 2108 research articles were retrieved, only 12 studies with a total of 5,472 participants met the inclusion criteria for this systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled estimates of participants with good knowledge of and positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine were found to be 65.06% (95% CI: 56.69-73.44%; I2 = 82.3%) and 60.15% (95% CI: 45.56-74.74%; I2 = 89.4%), respectively, revealing that there is a gap in knowledge of and positive attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine in Ethiopia. A holistic and multi-sectoral partnership is necessary for a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Keywords: COVID-19; COVID-19 vaccine; Ethiopia; Knowledge; attitude; vaccine.