SWS records 91% of Filipinos worried about contracting COVID-19

FILE: A vendor selling raincoats to parishioners while lining up at the entrance of Baclaran Church to offer prayers. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

Catching coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) still worries a huge number of Filipinos, based on the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on Thursday, January 7.

From November 21 to 25 last year, the pollster asked 1,500 Filipino adults about whether or not they are worried that they or someone in their family might contract the virus.

Among the survey respondents, a record-high of 91 percent of Filipinos said they were worried, with 77 percent of them saying they were worried by a great deal and 14 percent of them were somewhat worried.

Only five percent of those who took part in the survey were not worried, while the remaining three percent said they are worried a little.

The percentage of individuals who were worried about getting COVID-19 in the November 2020 survey was higher than the 87 percent in May 2020, when the pollster first conducted a survey about it.

It was also six points higher than the 85 percent in September last year.

The SWS noted that worry about getting infected with the virus was highest in Visayas at 96 percent, followed by Mindanao at 95 percent, Balance Luzon at 89 percent, and Metro Manila at 85 percent.

The latest percentages in all areas went up from the result of the September 2020 survey where worry about catching COVID-19 was only 84 percent in Visayas, 80 percent in Mindanao, 87 percent in Balance Luzon, and 83 percent in Metro Manila.

The survey, conducted using face-to-face interviews, has sampling error margins of plus-minus 2.5 percent for national percentages, plus-minus four percent for Balance Luzon, and plus-minus six percent for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday recorded new 1,353 COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of people infected with the virus in the country to 482,083.

On Wednesday, the Philippines’ vaccine czar Carlito Galvez, Jr. said the government is eyeing to secure at least 148 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, as they aim to vaccinate 50 to 70 million Filipinos in 2021.

He said the country is already in “advanced stages of negotiations” with Novavax, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, Sinovac, and Gamaleya, and that they hope to close the deal with these firms this month.