COVID-19: Nearly Half of the Population Has Already Gotten Tested

43% people of the survey participants had themselves tested for coronavirus, according to the current BfR-Corona-Monitor of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). The survey, which has been conducted regularly for almost a year now, documents how the population is dealing with the situation, what they are doing to protect themselves and how they are informing themselves about the current events. "For 50 weeks now, our survey has provided insights into the current situation and its development," says BfR-President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel. "Over time, we see that the vast majority of the population is implementing the key protective measures."

BfR-Corona-Monitor as to 2-3 March 2021: https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/349/210302-bfr-corona-monitor-en.pdf

Regarding the measures ordered to contain the coronavirus, the current mood is very mixed. For example, 84 percent of the respondents support the cancellation of events, 92 percent think the distance regulations are appropriate, and 91 percent think the same about the mandatory use of masks. For months, these regulations have been quite consistently accepted by the population.

Other measures, however, have been losing support over the past few weeks. For example, approval for the closure of shops has dropped to 37 percent - at the beginning of January it was at 61 percent. In the current survey, about half of the respondents approve of the closure of restaurants, and 60 percent approve of the closure of cultural institutions. Similar values were last seen in the surveys at the beginning of December. After that, approval had initially risen.

Proximity to other people is still assumed to be the primary source of infection. Currently, around two-thirds of respondents rate the probability of contracting the disease through proximity to others as high. By comparison, at the beginning of the pandemic about a year ago, this figure was at 81 percent.

The perception of the possibility of an infection via pets, on the other hand, remains fairly constant. The values vary, with minor outliers, between 6 and 10 percent.

Source-Eurekalert