MAJORITY of Filipinos adopted and practiced health standards like wearing of face masks, washing of hands and social distancing since the lockdown was imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a May 4-10 “Covid-19 Mobile Phone Survey” done by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The survey, which involved 4,010 working-age Filipinos or those aged 15 and above using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) with a sampling error of ±2 percent, showed that 77 percent of the respondents always used face masks in going out of their houses, 68 percent always washed their hands several times a day, and 64 percent always observed a “social distance” of one meter when outside their homes.
The SWS also found that 0.3 percent said they never used face masks when going out while 0.5 percent said they did not observe social distancing. Nobody said they never washed their hands.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said everyone needs to be concerned about the COVID-19 especially since there is still no vaccine. He said the virus threat, however, should not mean an end to living.
The survey results also showed that almost the same number of respondents living in areas covered by the enhance community quarantine (77 percent) and general community quarantine (78 percent) claimed they always wore face masks when going out while more people from the GCQ areas washed their hands several times a day (71 percent) and observed social distancing (65 percent) compared to those in the ECQ areas (66 percent and 65 percent, respectively).
The SWS found that more people from the Visayas wore face masks with 80 percent followed by those from Mindanao (79 percent), Metro Manila (78 percent), and Luzon (75 percent); and social distancing with 69 percent followed by those from Metro Manila (67 percent), Mindanao (64 percent), and Luzon (60 percent).
The survey also showed that more Mindanaoans washed their hands several times a day at 74 percent followed by those from the Visayas (73 percent), Metro Manila (68 percent) and Luzon (63 percent).
The other day, SWS released its finding that 87 percent of Filipinos are worried that somebody from their immediate family might catch COVID-19 while 13 percent are not worried about catching the virus.
