Majority not confident in govt's handling of Covid-19: poll

A majority of people are anxious about the Covid-19 outbreak and are not confident in the government's handling of the situation, according to an opinion survey carried out by Suan Dusit Rajabhat Univerisity, or Suan Dusit Poll.

The poll was conducted online on April 7-10 on 2,970 people throughout the country.

A huge majority -- 89.30% -- said they worried about the situation, while 10.70% said otherwise.

Asked whether they felt assured regarding the government's ability to stem the spread of Covid-19, 58.75% were not confident -- 36.09% not particularly confident and 22.66% not confident at all. On the other side, 33.07% said they were quite confident and 8.18% very confident.

Asked to outline what worried them the most in this situation, with each respondent allowed to give more than one answer, 87.68% pointed to the government's handling of the problem; 86.71% the work of medical personnel; 85.11% the possibility of being infected; 77.14% their daily expenses; 76.59% their work; 76.32% travel; 74.32% acquisition of items for self-protection such as hand sanitising gel and face masks; 73.23% their debts; and 71.64% availability of food.

Asked what they wanted the government to do as soon as possible, 87.10% wanted it to limit the Covid-19 spread; 71.38% to take serious control of goods prices; 68.22% to extend coronavirus testing; 65.49% to reduce water and electricity prices or provide free water and electricity; 63.91% to introduce a debt moratorium for everybody; 59.80% to provide money to assist low-income earners; 58.25% to give compensation to the unemployed or people laid off from their jobs; 45.93% to introduce tax reductions; 44.44% to provide low-interest loans or lower the interest rate; and 30.88% to ensure effective and transparent administration of all measures taken to tackle the coronavirus-related problems.

• Government map and tally of coronavirus infections in Thailand