85% of Filipinos worry about getting COVID-19, says survey

Most Filipinos are worried that they’ll get infected with the coronavirus, a survey released yesterday by the Social Weather Stations showed.

Conducted from July 3 to 6, the poll revealed that 85% of respondents are fearful that they might get COVID-19, consisting of 67% people who said they are “worried a great deal” and 18% who said they are “somewhat worried.”

The percentage is just slightly lower when the same survey that was conducted in May, where 87% said they are feeling anxious over getting the coronavirus, composed of 73% Filipinos who said they are “worried a great deal” and 14% of whom said they are “somewhat worried.”

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This month’s survey showed that Metro Manila, which has the highest number of COVID-19 cases, has the most number of respondents who expressed unease at 92%. This was followed by the rest of Luzon at 87%, Visayas at 85%, and Mindanao at 77%. Broken down by gender, women are more worried over COVID-19 with 87% expressing anxiety compared to 83% of men who voiced the same sentiment.

Worry is highest among Filipinos aged 35 to 44, with 88% of that group expressing distress, followed by those from ages 25 to 34, with 85% of them saying they’re anxious over getting sick. College graduates were found to be the ones who were fretting the most over getting ill at 89%, followed by junior high school graduates at 86%, elementary graduates at 80%, and non-primary school graduates at 79%.

A total of 1,555 adult Filipinos from the age of 18 were interviewed for the survey, conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing.

The survey was released just as the number of COVID-19 cases reached 70,764 yesterday, prompting the Duterte government to declare that it could possibly tighten Metro Manila’s quarantine should it reach 85,000 by end of this month.