Majority concerned Covid situation could worsen after country's reopening: poll

Majority concerned Covid situation could worsen after country's reopening: poll

Foreign tourists visit the Grand Palace in Bangkok on Nov 2, 2021, a day after the country reopened to fully vaccinated visitors.
Foreign tourists visit the Grand Palace in Bangkok on Nov 2, 2021, a day after the country reopened to fully vaccinated visitors.

A large majority of people are concerned the Covid-19 situation could worsen in the next one to two months, following the Nov 1 reopening of the country, according to the result of an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.

The poll was conducted by telephone interviews between Nov 15-16 on 1,320 people aged 18 and over of various levels of education and occupations throughout the country to compile their opinions on the overall situation after the reopening of the country on Nov 1.

Regarding the economy, 48.11% thought it remained the same; 29.85% viewed it as having improved a bit; 9.26% thought it had become a little worse; 8.94% thought it had become much worse; and only 3.48% said economic conditions were much improved.

Asked how satisfied they were with the measures taken by the government to prevent Covid-19 spreading, 42.88% said they were fairly satisfied; 29.09% a little dissatisfied; 17.04% not satisfied at all; 8.64% very satisfied; and 2.35% had no answer or were not interested.

Asked whether they were concerned the Covid-19 pandemic could become more serious in the next one or two months, a large majority (75.61%) said "yes" -- with 43.11% quite concerned, saying that the number of new infections in the country were still high and some people had not been vaccinated, and 32.50% very concerned, saying that foreign tourists could bring with them new Covid-19 variants.

On the other side, 24.09% said they were not concerned -- with 15.23% not particularly concerned because they lived in areas where the pandemic had been under control and 8.86% not concerned at all, saying the government had put strict measures in place and some people had been double-jabbed.

The rest, 0.30%, had no answer or were not interested.

Asked which was more important to them between economic survival and health safety, 58.94% said they attached more importance to health; 27.58% preferred economic survival with some health risks; and 13.48% left it to the government to decide.

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