Big new Covid-19 survey reveals a lot about our changed behaviour due to coronavirus restrictions in Ireland
Findings show positive changes in behaviour due to coronavirus restrictions
A sign on the M7
Over 85% of the sample reported adapting their behaviours at home. Interestingly, while 75% of people felt they have adapted their behaviour in public, only 37% of respondents felt that others around them in public, have changed their behaviour.
Almost one tenth have a child aged 15 or under in secondary school and reported that schools are sending work home (30%); setting regular home-work and providing additional online support (67%). In the case of those aged between 15-17, it showed that in 67% of cases, schools were setting home-work and providing extra support online.
10% of respondents (10,000 plus) were in receipt of the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment payment. Over 70,000 people of the sample survey reported as employed and of that 63% were working from home.
54% reported contact with people by chatting in person and observing social distancing; 77% reported contact through screen-time or over the phone (86%). Most respondents have a broadband connection (88%), and about 9% have mobile phone internet connection.
Employment/Working from home: 69% of respondents were employed. Students accounted for (4%); those identifying as retired represented 13% and 7% of respondents were homemakers.Of the people who were in employment (70,000 respondents), 6% used to work from home every day, 19% only sometimes and 41% never. Of the respondents who did not work from home it was usually because their job requires face to face contact (44%) while 17% indicated that working from home was not allowed in their company.Interestingly, of the respondents in employment, about 63% did work from home in the past week; 19% were essential workers and 19% were not working anymore.
Health
6,000 respondents indicated to have had flu-like symptoms in the last 14 days. Of these symptoms, most common was tiredness/exhaustion (64%), sore throat (54%), dry, throaty cough (44%) runny nose (42%) and/or muscle pain (38%). In relation to the sample of people who had flu-like symptoms; 52% thought they had symptoms of coronavirus and 53% contacted their GP. Of these; 36% were referred for testing. In relation to people who did receive test results,10% were positive, 18% were negative.
Demographics: 76% of the survey respondents were females. The mean and median age was 47 and was the same for male and female respondents.The vast majority of answers came from Dublin (38%); Galway (12%), Cork (6%) and all other counties at less than 5%. Of the respondents, 14% had secondary education, or were going through this, 4% had a technical or vocational diploma, 19% a national cert or diploma and 63% had a University degree.
Dr Akke Vellinga, Epidemiologist/Senior Lecturer, NUI Galway, joint research lead said: “The response to our corona-study has surpassed our expectations and shows the desire of the Irish people for their voice to be heard. The results are a barometer of how the pandemic impacts daily life. The next survey on Wednesday April the 22nd will show us how these trends progress and we are appealing to the public to take part and provide feedback on how they are coping.”
Professor Anthony Staines, Professor of Health Systems, DCU and joint research lead said: “This is a baseline study on how we are coping with the restrictive measure put in place by the Government to try and flatten the curve of the coronavirus pandemic in Ireland. As these restrictions have now been extended to May 5th we plan to repeat the study every two weeks to continually check the pulse of the nation and our ability to deal with the current situation.”
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