ISLAMABAD: The risk of the coronavirus pandemic spreading among the public is still present but it looks like the people have started becoming non-serious about the threat from the killer virus that killed more than 600,000 people across the globe and about 7,000 in Pakistan.
Gallup Pakistan conducted the survey across the country to check the seriousness of people regarding the COVID-19. The Survey comprising more than 1,300 respondents from all over the country, the survey was conducted between July 9 and August 10, 2020.
The survey found how the number of people who have doubts and suspicions about the coronavirus pandemic and who consider it to be a hoax has risen considerably.
The number of people who believe that the coronavirus pandemic is an exaggeration and the threats it posed not real shot up from 55 per cent in a prior survey to 70 per cent at present.
On the other hand, worryingly, the Gallup Pakistan poll found that the number of those who deem the risks from coronavirus to be real has come down from 41 per cent to 26 per cent.
The proportion of Pakistanis who consider the coronavirus pandemic to be a foreign conspiracy more than doubled from 23 per cent in March 2020 to 55 per cent, while the number of those who did not deem it so dropped from 72 per cent to 33 per cent.
The poll revealed that 54 per cent of Pakistani supported the idea that the coronavirus made in a laboratory, while 31 per cent disagreed.
Three out of five, or 59 per cent, respondents stated that although they were following the standard operating procedures (SOPs), they believed that the coronavirus was not real, while 32 per cent said they consider it to be real and 10 per cent declined to comment.
However, the survey found that the number of those who believed the government’s coronavirus data to be accurate had risen from 57 per cent to 61 per cent, while those who were skeptical comprised 33 per cent, translating into a 1 per cent increase from the prior poll.
The survey showed a 1 decrease in the number of people who said someone they know had been infected with the coronavirus, coming in at 21 per cent, while the number of those who said no one in their immediate circle had contracted the virus increased 1 per cent to 79 per cent.
The survey also highlighted that the proportion of people who believe that the coronavirus pandemic is completely under control rose 32 per cent from the previous survey to 79 per cent at present, whereas the proportion of those who disagreed with the assumption dropped 45 per cent to 15 per cent in the current survey.
The survey also found a decrease in the number of people complaining of feeling the symptoms of coronavirus, with those experiencing fever comprising 9 per cent of the respondents (3 per cent increase from May 2020) and those stating they had sore throats decreasing 5% to 3 per cent.
The number of people complaining of fatigue, breathing difficulties, and upset stomach increased from 4 per cent, 2 per cent, and 3 per cent, respectively, in the prior survey to 8 per cent, 3 per cent, and 3 per cent at present.
Only 4 per cent of those surveyed reported experiencing dry cough and runny nose in both polls.
In response to a question, whether someone they know died of coronavirus, 12 per cent of the respondents said yes, while 88% answered no.
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