Economic bankruptcy and mortality are the biggest concerns of the Portuguese

[dropcap type=”background”]N[/dropcap]ational economic bankruptcy (62% of respondents), high mortality (58%), the bankruptcy of the National Health System (46%) and unemployment (46%) are the main fears of the Portuguese in Covid’s time 19.

This is one of the conclusions of a study carried out by multidados.com – the research agency – in partnership with Guess What, which also wanted to know the current thoughts of the Portuguese on the Covid 19 pandemic.

Trust in healthcare and government professionals

On a scale of 0 to 10, Portuguese confidence in nurses (9.58), doctors (9.48), truck drivers and workers in essential goods stores (9.12), the National Health System (8.27) and Security forces (8.22) is almost maximum.

Also high is the confidence in the President of the Republic (7.69), Prime Minister (7.63), Minister of Health (7.61) and General Directorate of Health (7.61).

Portuguese know measures, but suggest more

The Portuguese (100%) say they know the Government’s measures to combat the pandemic and identify them: mandatory isolation for infected people (93%); closure of catering establishments, except those with take-away service (91%) and imposition of telework whenever possible (89%).

Even so, the respondents point out other initiatives that should be taken by the Portuguese government, such as economic aid to families (49%), suspension of payment of water, electricity, gas and communications contracts (37%), intensification of inspection by the authorities (37 %) or the curfew (41%).

Crisis will be strong and lasting

As seen by the respondents’ fears, the economy plays a central role in the thinking of the Portuguese. In case of economic need, 43% of the respondents say they have the support of their friends, with only 1% thinking of having economic aid from the Government.

More than 58% of respondents believe that the economic crisis resulting from the current situation will be strong and lasting.

Television is the medium of choice

More than 36% of respondents say they are always attentive to news on the topic; 37% say they see the news several times a day and 25% say they follow the information about the virus, at least once a day.

Television (95%) is the medium of choice for most Portuguese, followed by social networks (53%), SNS and DGS sites (46%) and other sites (26%).

Peak of the pandemic

Half of the respondents believe that the peak of the pandemic in Portugal will occur within a month, while 32% believe that the peak will occur in a week.

The study was carried out using CATI (Telephone) and CAWI (online) methods to a database of users registered on the multidados.com platform. 1,000 responses were collected and validated between 20 and 23 March.