Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 7) — Even before the discovery of a more contagious COVID-19 variant in the United Kingdom, a ‘record-high’ 91% of Filipinos surveyed by the Social Weather Stations expressed worries they or their family members might catch the coronavirus.
READ: Don’t let your guard down, experts say amid threat of new COVID-19 variants
Based on the non-commissioned poll conducted from Nov. 21 to 25 nationwide, 77% said they were “worried a great deal,” while 14% were “somewhat worried” about getting infected.
In its report published on Thursday, the private pollster noted that the 91% recorded in November 2020 surpassed the previous high of 87% in May of the same year – when the topic was first surveyed. The poll has since been conducted every other month.
The respondents were 1,500 adults, who were asked the question, “Kayo po ba ay nababahala o hindi nababahala na kayo o sino man sa inyong pamilya ay magkasakit ng COVID-19?”
[Translation: Are you worried or not worried that you or someone in your immediate family might catch COVID-19?]
The SWS said the number of respondents worried about catching COVID-19 is highest in the Visayas at 96%, followed by Mindanao at 95%, Luzon at 89%, and Metro Manila at 85%. Metro Manila remains the epicenter of the local coronavirus outbreak as it has recorded over 212,000 infections.
All in all, more than 482,000 people have contracted the coronavirus since the pandemic began, according to government data. More than 449,000 have recovered while 9,356 died.
Two new variants of the coronavirus, one announced to have been discovered in the UK in December 2020, and another that originated in South Africa, are causing travel bans and widespread concern across the world as experts say they are more transmissible.
The Philippines has so far imposed travel restrictions on 27 countries and territories with confirmed cases of the new variants. Both mutations have not been detected in the Philippines as of Wednesday, but the Philippine Genome Center said genomic surveillance will continue to monitor the presence of any new variant.
Dr. John Wong, founder of the health research institution Epimetrics, who is now part of the technical working group studying the recent mutations, said the Philippines could see a 15-fold increase in infections in just a month if the variant from UK becomes the dominant variant in the country.
