MANILA, Philippines – Nine in 10 Filipinos are stressed due to the coronavirus pandemic, pollster Social Weather Stations said.

The survey conducted from May 4 to 10 showed that the pandemic brought great stress to 55% of the surveyed working age Filipinos or 15 years old and above, and 34% experienced “much stress.”

Only a small percentage at 11% felt “little” or no stress because of coronavirus.

The respondents were asked, “Gaano kalaki ang stress na idinulot ng krisis sa COVID-19 sa inyong buhay?” (How much stress does the COVID-19 crisis cause your life right now?)

Of those who experienced great stress, at least 4.2 million families, or 16.7% of those surveyed, experienced involuntary hunger due to lack of food to eat. The survey also found that more Filipinos are hungry – the figure was twice the 2.1 million families who experienced hunger in December 2019.

Still on the issue of great stress, SWS found that those who answered this have jobs but were not receiving pay (58%) and those who lost their jobs (57%).

Stress was highest in Visayas at 63%, followed by Metro Manila at 58%, Mindanao at 55%, and Balance Luzon at 51%.

Those with less education were also more stressed than those who finished school at 59% for non-elementary graduates. It is closely followed by those who studied in high school at 58% and junior high school graduates at 56%. Stress among those who finished undergraduate degrees was at 52%.

The survey was a departure from SWS’s usual face-to-face interviews. It was conducted using phones and computer-assisted telephone interviews with 4,010 working age Filipinos nationwide: 294 in the National Capital Region, 1,645 in Balance Luzon or Luzon outside of Metro Manila, 792 in Visayas, and 1,279 in Mindanao.

The nationwide survey has a sampling error of ±2% for national figures and ±6% for Metro Manila, ±2% for Balance Luzon, and ±3% for Visayas and Mindanao.

During the survey period, Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and other high-risk areas are still under the enhanced community quarantine. The rest are under the general community quarantine. Some 16 million families have received the P5,000 to P8,000 cash aid from government.

At that time, the Department of Labor and Employment said that at least 2.3 million Filipinos have either lost their jobs or are under a “No Work, No Pay” scheme in 87,301 establishments nationwide.

Only close to 350,000 private sector workers around the country have received the P5,000 wage subsidy from DOLE, while more than 250,000 informal sector workers benefited from the cash-for-work program of the government. DOLE stopped accepting applications for the cash subsidy program during the survey period. – Rappler.com