Public expects the crisis to go on for ten months

Coronavirus weekly tracker: 1st April 2020

Each week we ask 2,000 UK adults, representing around 45m people, about their experiences during the coronavirus outbreak. Additionally, you can gain a daily view of public opinion here.

Half of UK adults foresee they’ll have less disposable income in a post-Covid world.

Here are the key points from this week’s update:

• More victims: The death toll at the start of the week rose above 1,500 in the UK
• Rising infections: 24% of people know of someone with Covid-19, up from 22% last week. That 2% rise represents over 1m more people, though the rate of increase is slowing
• More people expect to catch the virus: 41% (18m people) believe they are likely or extremely likely to catch coronavirus, up from 33% last week
• More in self-isolation: 51% of people are self-isolating as of Monday 30th. Only 27% of us left the house on Monday as self-isolation becomes the new normal
• More homeworking: 51% of the population is now working at home
• Stockpiling continues: Of those going to supermarkets, a quarter are “stocking up”, rising to 48% in London, even if less are experiencing outages. Supermarket sales soar.
• Stabilising anxiety: Now 39% of adults are anxious about the situation, down from 45% last week
• Stabilised crisis duration: The population expect the crisis to go on for 10 months, as they did last week
• More following government advice: 45% now following advice “entirely” up from 36% last week, still a hard core of 17% follow “Sometimes” “Mostly not” or “Not at all”, flat on the week.
• Economic worry persists: Half of UK adults foresee they’ll have less disposable income in a post-Covid world, and still most amongst the self-employed.

Our altered lives go on…

As we always say, these posts raise important questions about the role of research in a time of crisis, just as much as they stimulate questions about how the population is dealing with the unfolding, unravelling reality of life in the UK during a pandemic.

Our goal is simple: to help our clients and the business community stay in touch with our increasingly disrupted population and to help everyone better understand what’s going on and what it means for them.

Your comments and connections are welcome; if you would like to know more, purchase more detailed data or analysis, or would like to ask your own questions get in touch.

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