More than 71 per cent of people said they felt the Government's Level 5 restrictions were 'appropriate', according to a new survey by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Overall 71.5 per cent of respondents believed the Level 5 response was ‘Appropriate’, while 18.3 per cent felt it was ‘Too Extreme’ while 10.2 per cent believed it was ‘Not sufficient’.
They said if you were to analyse it by age, the likelihood of a respondent feeling that the Level 5 response was ‘Appropriate’ increased with age, with 63.2 per cent of respondents aged 18-34 agreeing that the Level 5 response was ‘Appropriate’ rising to 88.2 per cent for those aged 70 years and over.
Conversely, the likelihood of a respondent feeling that the Level 5 response was ‘Too extreme’ decreased with age, falling from 23.1 per cent for those aged 18-34 to 5.2 per cent for those aged 70 years and over.
The topics covered in the latest CSO Social impact of Covid-19 include well-being, changes in consumption, compliance with official Covid-19 advice and positive impacts on life since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.
Well-being
When it came to overall well-being, the CSO found that more than one in three (35.6 per cent) survey respondents rated their overall life satisfaction as ‘Low’. This compares with 29.6 per cent in April 2020 and 8.7 per cent in 2018
The percentage of respondents that felt downhearted or depressed ‘All’ or ‘Most of the time’ in the four-week period prior to interview doubled between April and November 2020, from 5.5 per cent to 11.5 per cent.
More than 17 per cent of female respondents felt lonely ‘All’ or ‘Most of the time’ compared with 9.9 per cent of male respondents.
Compliance
When it came to compliance, almost two-thirds (65.2 per cent) of respondents rated their compliance with government advice and guidelines as ‘High’, compared with four in five (80.6 per cent) who rated their compliance as ‘High’ in April 2020.
Just over 39 per cent of respondents believes that, within the next 12 months, their lives will return to something like it was before the onset of the Covid-19 crisis while 45.3 per cent believe it will be between one and two years
Almost three in ten (28.7 per cent) said spending ‘More quality time with the people they live with’ is an aspect of their lives that has changed for the better since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis
Commenting on the results, statistician, Claire Burke said: ‘The findings of the survey serve to highlight the impact that COVID-19 is having on society.
Changes in consumption
More than two in ten (21.1 per cent) respondents who consume alcohol reported an increase in their alcohol consumption when compared with their consumption before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis.
More than one in four (26.8 per cent) reported a decrease and more than half (52.2 per cent) reported ‘No change’.
In November 27.4 per cent of respondents who use tobacco products said their consumption has ‘Increased’ since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, 17.4 per cent said their consumption ‘Decreased’ and 55.1 per cent reported ‘No change’.
More than four in ten (41.3 per cent) respondents said that their consumption of junk food and sweets has ‘Increased’ since the onset of the Covid-19 crisis.
The CSO found that overall, respondents believed they were less likely to contract COVID-19 in November than in April.
In November 84.0 per cent of respondents believed they had a ‘Low’ chance of getting infected with Covid-19 and 16.0 per cent believed that they had a ‘Medium’ or ‘High’ chance. The comparable rates in April were 76.3 per cent and 23.7 per cent.
