Belief in the government’s ability to do a good job at controlling COVID-19 took a sharp drop in August, a survey carried out by the Richmond Foundation has found, with three out of four people saying they believed it would take three months or more to return to "normality".
The survey is the third carried out by the foundation that charts the physical and psychological impact of pandemic on the public. This edition was carried out between August 19 to 31 among 500 respondents by research company Esprimi. Previous surveys were carried out in April and July and the next is expected to be held in mid-October.
In August, 64.4% of people surveyed did not feel the adequacy of current mitigation measures was sufficient given the situation, which veered drastically to the 71.6% of respondents who felt the response had been adequate when surveyed in April.
The number of people who are concerned about their health and wellbeing rose to 63.7% from 42.4% in July with as 61.4% saying that they were more aware of other people’s coughs and sneezes, up from 45.4%. A total 70.3% said they were concerned about the health of their friends and family.
The biggest shift in people’s responses came from the statement “I doubled my efforts not to get COVID-19”, to which 56.6% replied in the affirmative, up from 29.6%, while 62% said they were making an effort to stay away from other people.
In general, the third round of the survey seemed to find that people perceived COVID-19 to be a larger threat than they did a month ago, Richmond Foundation said.
Higher concern for many aspects
Across the board, concern was higher for many aspects than it was in July, with women tending to be worried slightly more than men in the majority of the aspects questioned.
People were most worried about the physical health and safety of their loved ones, followed by the impact of COVID-19 on Malta as a nation, while respondents were least worried about not achieving something important that they had planned.
The foundation has reported an increase in anxiety related to COVID-19, with 76% of people worried about catching the virus than in July, up by 6%. 72% felt that the virus was a threat to their health, up from 62%.
Feeling of depression over five to seven days surged among 16 to 24 year olds, going up from 4.1% to 19.4%, while those aged 65 and over reported similar levels as those in April. For most other demographics, feelings of depression were similar to those reported in the Wave One survey, the foundation said.
Over 65’s reported the highest feelings of loneliness in August, at 14.3%, while 16 to 24 year olds showed an increase for feelings of loneliness at 11.1%, up from 6.8%.
Fear similarly saw a sharp increase among the youngest and oldest demographics, with 16 to 24 year olds expressing frequent feelings of fear going from 2% to 13.9 % in August and 5.4% to 20.9% among over 65’s.
Feelings of hopefulness remained more or less similar in August among younger demographics, however, higher percentages of older people tended to experience more hope, with those aged 55 and over generally having the most positive outlook.
Thought of self harm remained fairly consistent across most demographics, however, an increasing number of 55 to 64-year olds said they were experiencing thoughts of self harm, up from 1.2% in July to 4.7% in August.
There was an increase in over 65 year olds who reported suicidal thoughts, up to 4.4% in August from 2.2% in July.