70% of Pakistanis believe COVID-19 threat is exaggerated: survey

KARACHI: The risk of the coronavirus spreading among the public is still present but it looks like the people have started becoming less serious about the threat from the disease, as revealed in a recent survey by Gallup Pakistan.

Comprising more than 1,300 respondents from all over the country, the survey was conducted between July 9 and August 10, 2020.

The survey found how the number of people who have doubts and suspicions about the coronavirus pandemic and who consider it to be a hoax has risen considerably.

The number of people who believe that the coronavirus pandemic is an exaggeration and the threats it posed not real shot up from 55% in a prior survey to 70% at present.

On the other hand, worryingly, the Gallup Pakistan poll found that the number of those who deem the risks from coronavirus to be real has come down from 41% to 26%.

The proportion of Pakistanis who consider the coronavirus pandemic to be a foreign conspiracy more than doubled from 23% in March 2020 to 55%, while the number of those who did not deem it so dropped from 72% to 33%.

The poll revealed that 54% of Pakistani supported the idea that the coronavirus made in a laboratory, while 31% disagreed.

Three out of five, or 59%, respondents stated that although they were following the standard operating procedures (SOPs), they believed that the coronavirus was not real, while 32% said they consider it to be real and 10% declined to comment.

However, the survey found that the number of those who believed the government's coronavirus data to be accurate had risen from 57% to 61%, while those who were skeptical comprised 33%, translating into a 1% increase from the prior poll.

The survey showed a 1% decrease in the number of people who said someone they know had been infected with the coronavirus, coming in at 21%, while the number of those who said no one in their immediate circle had contracted the virus increased 1% to 79%.

The survey also highlighted that the proportion of people who believe that the coronavirus pandemic is completely under control rose 32% from the previous survey to 79% at present, whereas the proportion of those who disagreed with the assumption dropped 45% to 15% in the current survey.

The survey also found a decrease in the number of people complaining of feeling the symptoms of coronavirus, with those experiencing fever comprising 9% of the respondents (3% increase from May 2020) and those stating they had sore throats decreasing 5% to 3%.

The number of people complaining of fatigue, breathing difficulties, and upset stomach increased from 4%, 2%, and 3%, respectively, in the prior survey to 8%, 3%, and 3% at present.

Only 4% of those surveyed reported experiencing dry cough and runny nose in both polls.

In response to a question, whether someone they know died of coronavirus, 12% of the respondents said yes, while 88% answered no.