While Canada's top doctor, Dr. Theresa Tam, has underscored the importance of physical distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19, a recent report shows that not all residents take the order seriously.
Ipsos, a market research company, has conducted a poll on behalf of Global News and found that over a quarter of Canadians (26%) are not following the recommendations from public-health officials to their full extent. With this in mind, most of the Canadians polled (95%), agree that physical distancing can be effective in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in Canada. However, only 63% feel that most Canadians are taking physical-distancing measures seriously.
"Six in ten (59%) residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba and one half in Atlantic Canada (48%) are not confident Canadians are taking physical-distancing seriously, while fewer residents of BC (39%), Ontario (39%), Alberta (35%) and Quebec (23%) are not confident," notes the poll.
The also shows that nearly three quarters (72%) agree, "that they’re confident that Canada will control COVID-19 infections enough to prevent our healthcare system from being overwhelmed."
And while the overwhelming majority of respondents (94%) agree that COVID-19 is a serious health crisis in Canada, over a quarter of them are not following strict physical-distancing measures recommended by public-health authorities. What's more, the report finds that younger demographics are less likely to follow them. While 19% of those aged 55+ aren't following the order, this figure rises to 27% among those aged 35-54. For people aged 18-34, 32% are not following the rules.
With this in mind, the reports finds that only 3% say they’re carrying on as normal, going to work, socializing and interacting as normal. Futher, it found that 60% of respondents are only going out once a week to get grocies. In addition, 15% of respondents are self-quarantining at home and not going out at all.
Roughly one in ten Canadians also reported that they know someone who has been infected with COVID-19. Interestingly, the report also found that individuals, "who know someone with COVID-19 are more likely (34%) to admit that they are not fully practicing physical distancing when compared to those who don’t know anybody with COVID-19 (24%)."
