Majority of Indians are afraid of COVID, says survey

New Delhi: Amid a brutal second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and concentrated efforts made by the administration to get maximum people vaccinated, majority of Indians are afraid of being infected with the ongoing Covid-19 disease either by themselves or their family members, says a survey report.

The survey conducted by IANS-C Voter taking opinions from 56,685 people covering all 542 Lok Sabha segments between January 1 and May 27 this year reveals that 56 per cent have agreed that they are afraid either they or someone in their family might be actually caught with the Coronavirus or Covid-19 virus.

Of the total, 38.9 per cent people did not agree with the opinion that they or their family members might be caught with the disease. In the last seven days, the survey mentioned, a total of 6,872 people were asked question regarding the fear of being caught with the Covid virus.

The survey all shows that, of the total, over 19 per cent says that they neither fear Covid-risk nor wish to get inoculated while 4.5 per cent people do not willing get a Covid jab because they believe there will be other effective treatments available soon.

Meanwhile 70 per cent of the respondents have said that they will take vaccine against coronavirus whenever it's available.

When asked if the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is safe, 48.8 per cent respondents agreed that it's totally safe while 9 per cent disagreed, however, an average of 57 per cent agreed that the vaccine is safe. A total of 67.8 per cent respondents thought that a new Coronavirus vaccine would be important.

Out of 56,685 people who participated in survey, 19 per cent of them said they do not want get vaccine doses because they believe the vaccines can give the same disease they are designed to protect against. Whereas, 8.5 per cent participants replied they are not willing to get vaccinated because they do not know enough about vaccines.

While 9.6 per cent of citizens in the survey revealed they have not taken even a single dose of the vaccine nor will they in future as well the report showed that 15.7 per cent have received the first dose of Covid vaccine.

Out of total participants, 59.5 per cent people replied they haven't got vaccinated but will get vaccinated. The survey report suggested that 7.3 per cent people were yet to decide whether to get vaccined or not.

According to the survey, 69 per cent people said they would participate in a vaccine trial, if given a chance, while 48.9 per cent reacted that they would be very likely to participate in a Covid vaccine trial in the country, while another 20.6 per cent said that would be likely to take part.

Meanwhile, 2.6 per cent said they were somewhat unlikely to participate, and another 23.2 per cent said they would not like to participate in a vaccine trial at all.

The survey also shows that majority of the families suffering from Covid took advice from the Doctor before proceeding for the medication.

In reply to the question "Was the medication taken after consulting doctor or did you do self-medication or took home remedies?", 80.9 per cent respondents replied they took advice from the Doctor while 11.9 per cent said they did self medication, however, 7.2 per cent people did not say anything on this.

On the issue of treatment during the crisis, only 36.7 per cent people said they needed treatment, while 63.7 per cent said that they did not need ICU or ventilator or oxygen supply.

But when this question was put to the families which reported hospilatisation, 51 per cent said they got it easily while 8 per cent said they got it with little difficulty. But 31.7 per cent of the respondents said they got it with lots of efforts while 8.4 per cent said they did not get these things despite lot of efforts.

The people whose near and dear ones were in hospital did say that these things - like ICU or ventilator or oxygen, were required during the process of hospitalization.

The survey comes at a time when India's overall tally of Covid-19 cases now stands at 2,78,94,800 with 21,14,508 active cases and 3,25,972 deaths so far.