By DHEL NAZARIO
Three specific areas of the government’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response are adequate according to a majority of Filipinos, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed.
The survey, conducted Sept. 17 to 20 among 1,249 respondents, found out that the majority consider government actions to be “adequate” (percentage of very adequate plus percentage of somewhat adequate) in three out of four areas of concern.
These are ensuring the public has enough information on how to fight COVID-19 at 71 percent, ensuring there will be extensive contact tracing at 67 percent, and ensuring there is affordable COVID-19 testing nationwide at 54 percent.
They were asked: “Sa pangkalahatan, gaano po kasapat ang mga ginagawa ng gobyerno sa mga sumusunod upang labanan ang COVID-19? (Talagang sapat, Medyo sapat, Hindi tiyak kung sapat o hindi, Medyo hindi sapat, Talagang hindi sapat) (In general, how adequate are the actions of government in the following activities to fight COVID-19? (Very adequate, Somewhat adequate, Undecided if adequate or not, Somewhat inadequate, Very inadequate)”:
– Paniniguro na mabigyan ng sapat na tulong ang mga taong nawalan ng trabaho/pinagkakakitaan dahil sa COVID-19 sa buong bansa (Ensuring the provision of adequate help to people who have lost their job/livelihood because of COVID-19 nationwide)
– Paniniguro na ang publiko ay nakakakuha ng sapat na impormasyon kung paano labanan ang COVID-19 sa buong bansa (Ensuring that the public gets enough information on how to fight COVID-19 nationwide)
– Paniniguro ng malawakang “contact tracing” o paghahanap ng mga taong nakasalamuha ng taong may COVID-19 sa buong bansa (Ensuring that there will be an extensive contact tracing of people who were in contact with persons with COVID-19 nationwide)
– Paniniguro na may abot kayang COVID-19 testing sa buong bansa para sa mga taong nangangailangan nito (Ensuring that there is affordable COVID-19 testing nationwide for people who need it)
On informing the public, 22 percent said they are inadequate while six percent were undecided.
On “ensuring that there will be an extensive contact tracing of people who were in contact with persons with COVID-19 nationwide,” 23 percent said they are inadequate (seven percent very inadequate, 16 percent somewhat inadequate) while nine percent were undecided.
On “ensuring that there is affordable COVID-19 testing nationwide for people who need it,” 33 percent said they are inadequate (13 percent very inadequate, 20 percent somewhat inadequate) while 11 percent were undecided.
SWS said however when it comes to ensuring the provision of adequate help for people who lost their job and livelihood, only 44 percent believe government actions are adequate, 46 percent said they are inadequate, awhile nine percent were undecided.
Data were gathered through mobile phone interviews of adult Filipinos (18-years-old and above), randomly drawn from a database of mobile phone numbers compiled from SWS national and subnational representative face-to-face surveys since 2017.
