Fear of Covid-19 impact on economy outweighs health concerns: Survey

LUCKNOW: The first two phases of the nationwide lockdown left 79% people worried, not because they feared getting infected or were uncertain about how long it would last, but were worried that its economic impact would affect their future.
A survey on ‘Understanding public sentiment during lockdown’, conducted by Prof Satya Bhushan Dash and Avinash Jain from the Indian Institute of Management-Lucknow, has revealed that 32% respondents feared that the pandemic would have impact on economy, while only 14% considered the risk of getting infected as a bigger worry.
Despite apprehensions, 60% people were confident about India’s ability to combat the spread of coronavirus. This confidence stemmed from measures taken by the government like lockdown, social distancing and contact tracing.
In fact, people showed high level of confidence in lockdown 2.0 (63%) as compared to lockdown 1.0 (57%) due to improvement in health infrastructure, availability of masks and PPE kits.
About 40% respondents were apprehensive about the possibility of considerable damage due to corona as they believed people were not complying with lockdown guidelines.
The online survey conducted among 931 people in 104 cities through social media platforms, also captured basic feelings and emotions of people during lockdown. Fear, as expressed by 40% respondents, and sadness, by 22% people, emerged to be the dominant emotions.
Interestingly, 13% said they were happy during lockdown, 11% people felt disgusted, while 9% said they were surprised. Respondents comprised 62% men and 38% women. “I hope government’s actions are visible on ground quickly to alleviate fear of impact of economic situation which is there in people’s mind,” said Prof Dash.