Most Koreans think Covid-19 policy change ‘proper’ but unsure about effects

A majority of Koreans took a positive view of changes in the government’s Covid-19 quarantine policy to cope with the Omicron variant’s spread.

However, they were uncertain about the effects these changes have on minimizing the current wave, as the number of daily infections soared far more steeply than expected, according to a survey.

A research team of Professor Yoo Myeong-soon of the Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) at Seoul National University recently surveyed 1,000 people about the public’s awareness of Covid-19. Survey People, a polling agency, surveyed from Feb. 25 to March 2.

The research team asked how people think of the government’s standard in selecting intensive care groups among at-home treatment patients, telephone treatment of general care group among at-home treatment patients, shortening the at-home treatment period to seven days, non-face-face treatment at neighborhood clinics, and prioritizing targets for PCR testing.

In response, 62.6 percent of respondents viewed these policy changes as appropriate, with 61 percent replying that the measures are being applied well and 61.5 percent believe they are sustainable.

However, a relatively low share of 55.8 percent of respondents was confident that the new quarantine policy and measures would positively work to overcome the Omicron wave. More than a third (35.4 percent) of those surveyed answered it would be difficult to tide over the Omicron wave.

Likewise, 63.4 percent thought the society would find it “difficult to control” the Covid-19 risks, far higher than 36.6 percent who believed it would be controllable.

Koreans continuously showed high confidence in infectious disease experts, with 80.6 percent expressing “trust” in medical professionals and 77.2 percent showing confidence in the experts of infectious diseases and epidemiology.

The public confidence in quarantine authorities and the government dropped by 9.9 percentage points and 3.3 percentage points to 63.3 percent and 52.4 percent from November when the officials pushed to recover normalcy.

“The survey suggests that it is important for the authorities to improve the public’s confidence in quarantine policy to heighten the possibility of social controls over the risks of infectious diseases in the future,” Professor Yoo said.

Despite higher possibility of infection, public awareness of seriousness drops

Besides, despite the mounting concerns about the Omicron’s spread, most Koreans thought its risks were relatively lower.

Those who replied, “I am highly likely to be infected,” reached 27.8 percent of respondents, hitting the highest level. In contrast, only 47.9 percent of people, the lowest share, said, “The result of the infection will be serious.”

Another survey, released by Korea Research on Wednesday, showed similar responses.

During the four-day opinion poll from last Friday, 43 percent of people replied they were highly likely to be infected, hitting the highest level since the outbreak of Covid-19 more than two years ago. The share of worrying responses did not exceed 30 percent by staying at 27 percent in the initial stage of the outbreak and 28 percent at the end of 2020 when concerns about the collapse of the medical system mounted high amid the extreme shortage of hospital beds.

In contrast, only 71 percent of the polled said the situation was “serious,” far lower than near 90 percent who saw the situation grave in the previous four Covid-19 waves. Despite the wider spread, the awareness of serious even went down.

“Such replies seem to reflect their subjective judgment based on the Omicron variant's characteristics that have higher contagious power than the Delta variant but relative lower fatality rate,” Professor Yoo said.