A huge majority of people agree that the restrictions imposed to limit the spread of coronavirus should be relaxed now that the situation has much improved, according to the result of an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was carried out on May 4-7 on 1,259 people aged 18 and above throughout the country to gauge their opinions about the measures which have been imposed by the government, including the lockdown of the country.
Asked whether they thought that restrictions should now be relaxed, a huge majority - 83.95% - said "yes". Of them, 34.39% said they strongly agreed with the idea as the number of infections had dropped, people had cooperated with the health guidelines issued by the government and some businesses had been allowed to re-open. A further 49.56% were in more moderate agreement, saying the relaxation would enable people to return to a normal life and resume their work.
On the other side, 9.93% said they did not agree, saying that if the relaxation happened too quickly there could a second wave of the pandemic, while 6.04% strongly opposed relaxing restrictions.
The rest had no comment or were not interested.
Asked whether they believed the people and businesses would strictly comply with the health guidelines to prevent the virus spreading after shops were allowed to re-open, 18.19% said they had a strong belief that they would do so while 48.77% said they also believed the majority of people would be more responsible.
On the other side, 26.13% were still not sure the businesses and people would be disciplined enough while 6.43% were not sure at all that they would fully comply with the instructions and this could lead to another round of Covid-19 outbreak.
The rest were not interested or had no comment.
Asked whether they worried that there would be a second round of the Covid-19 outbreak if the measures imposed were relaxed, 15.33% said they were very worried this possibility, while 47.58% were fairly concerned that with people being allowed to travel from high risk areas, a second wave of the virus could spread.
On the other side, 25.73% said they did not worry about this because most people know how to protect themselves. judging from the drop in the number of infections, while 11.12% were not at all worried as long as the people and businesses cooperated and strictly complied with the guidelines for protection.
The rest had no comment or were not interested.