Most people believe Covid-19 is harmful: Survey

KABUL (Pajhwok): A survey shows 60 percent of Afghanistan population had difficulty meeting economic needs during Covid-19 pandemic, 82 percent are forced to be on diet and borrow money and more than 50 percent are dissatisfied with medical, ambulances services and the way Covid-19 patient bodies are handled.

The survey is conducted by the Afghanistan Institute of Strategic Study titled ‘Knowledge, Research and Public way of handling Covid-19, its effects in Afghanistan’.

In the survey, conducted in 34 provinces, 2,907 people were interviewed. Its outcome was shared with the media today.

According to the study, 82 percent of respondents were forced to diet and borrow from friends and relatives during the pandemic. 44 percent lost part of their income during the quarantine. The result shows that family violence also increased during the pandemic.

In addition, 22 percent participants have no clue about the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccine.

Half of the participants complained against provision of services such as ambulance, treatment and ensuring basic economic needs of less fortunate persons during the pandemic.

Eighty percent of participants said if coronavirus testing and vaccination facility was provided, they would avail it.

Of the total participants, 35 percent said they used masks to protect themselves from coronavirus.

Referring to the adverse effects of coronavirus on people, Dr. NargisNiazi, senior advisor at ACSS, said more than half of the participants believed that coronavirus posed huge threat while half of unmarried participants said that they did not suffer from coronavirus so far.

“Fifty-nine percent believed that visiting crowded places, touching dirty places caused the pandemic from one person to another,” she said.

Nargis said that 80 percent participants termed frequent washing of hands and use of masks as basic precautionary measure to protect from the virus.

Nh/ma

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