Stressed over COVID-19? SWS says 86% of Filipinos were in September
MANILA, Philippines — An overwhelming majority of Filipinos continued to experience stress due to the coronavirus pandemic, a new Social Weather Stations survey suggested.
The poll conducted from September 17 to 20 found that the COVID-19 crisis brought stress to 86% of the surveyed 1,249 working age Filipinos. About 58% said they felt “great stress”—up by seven points from the 51% logged in the July survey.
Some 27% of the respondents experienced “much stress” while only 15% felt “little to no stress.”
Of those who said they had “great stress,” 69% experienced hunger due to lack of food to eat, while 53% did not experience it. SWS earlier reported that some 7.6 million Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months.
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The polling form also found that 58% of those who were jobless and 58% of those who were employed at the time of the interview experienced “great stress” due to the pandemic.
Stress was highest in Visayas (64%), Balance Luzon (58%), Mindanao (55%) and Metro Manila (53%).
The proportion of those with “great stress” was similar among men and women at 58% and 57%, respectively. It rose among men from 49% in July and among women from 52%.
The country’s coronavirus caseload breached the 330,000-mark Thursday, with 6,069 deaths.
Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said that poverty could worsen in 2021 due to the impacts of the health crisis and that urban areas might bear most of the brunt.
During the survey period, most parts of the Philippines were already under modified general community quarantine.
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The survey was conducted using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing. It had a sampling error of ±3% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, ±5% for Balance Luzon, ±6% for the Visayas, and ±6% for Mindanao.
During the survey period, most parts of the Philippines were already under modified general community quarantine.
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