New Delhi: In what may bring a sigh of relief to the government, which is trying hard to calm the people in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in the country, the IANS C-Voter Covid Tracker’s Index of Panic has gone down in the third week as the levels of complacency have gone down among the masses.
This essentially means that people are panicking less than they were a week before.
Responding to the statement that “I am afraid that either myself or someone in my family may actually catch coronavirus,” 39.3 per cent strongly disagreed while 14.3 per cent disagreed. Collectively, they cross the 50 per cent barrier.
However, there are still 30.1 per cent respondents who said they strongly believed that they might catch the virus, while 13.3 per cent respondents said they didn’t strongly agree with the idea, and conceded that they were fearful. Meanwhile, 2.9 per cent said they can’t say.
To put things into perspective, last week the number of people who said they strongly disagreed that they were afraid was 31.5 per cent.
In other words, last week, 31.5 per cent said they were vehemently unafraid of the virus. That number has gone up this week and the change is 7.8 per cent.
At a time when the government’s primary role is to contain the panic so that people stay indoors and follow social distancing norms, these numbers will certainly bring some sense of relief.
The IANS C-Voter Covid Tracker findings and projections are based on a daily tracking poll on CATI, conducted during the last seven days among 18+ adults nationwide. The data is weighted to the known demographic profile of the states.
The Tracking Poll Fieldwork covers random probability samples during the last seven days from the release date. The sample spread is across all Assembly segments across all states. The sample size is 1,114. The survey was conducted from April 4-6.
