MANILA, Philippines – A majority of adult Filipinos expect the COVID-19 crisis in the country to be over in 2022, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey held in December 2021 but released released late Friday, February 11.

According to the results of the Fourth Quarter 2021 Social Weather Survey conducted from December 12 to 16, 2021, 29% of Filipinos believed that the health crisis would end within six months, or by June, while 22% said it would end within a year or by December 2022, for a total of 51%.

The poll results showed that 45% believed the health crisis would end after 2022.

Hope that the COVID-19 situation improve within the year was strongest in Mindanao (62%), followed by Balance Luzon (51%), Metro Manila (49%), and the Visayas (41%).

Meanwhile, the highest percentage of those expecting the COVID-19 crisis to last beyond 2022 is in the Visayas (56%), followed by Metro Manila (48%), Balance Luzon (44%), and Mindanao (35%).

Across all educational levels, around half expected the COVID-19 crisis to end within the year – 53% among elementary graduates, 51% among junior high school graduates, 50% among college graduates, and 49% among non-elementary graduates. 

The survey also tested how Filipinos reacted to three specific COVID-19 proposals and policies.

The survey was conducted among 1,440 adults nationwide, with 360 each in Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao. The sampling error margins were ±2.6% for national percentages, and ±5.2% for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

Vaccine mandate for all

SWS said that 51% of Fiipinos agreed that it was right to enact into law President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal to compel all Filipinos to get inoculated against COVID-19, while 31% disagreed, and 17% were undecided.

The highest net agreement was in Metro Manila at a strong +30, followed by moderate scores of +28 in Balance Luzon and +23 in Mindanao, then a poor -10 in the Visayas. 

Junior high school graduates (+28), college graduates (+21), and elementary graduates (+12) had moderate net agreement with this proposed vaccine mandate, while net agreement was neutral among non-elementary graduates (+6).

Biweekly RT-PCR testing for unvaccinated employees

A little over half (51%) of Filipinos agreed that it’s only right for unvaccinated employees not to be allowed to report for work until they provide a negative RT-PCR test result every two weeks.

SWS said 35% disagreed with this policy while 14% were undecided.

Net agreement with this policy was highest in Balance Luzon (moderate +29) followed by  Mindanao (moderate +16) and Metro Manila (moderate +12). The Visayas had poor net agreement at -13.

College graduates (+22), junior high school graduates (+19), and elementary graduates (+12) had moderate net agreement with this policy, while net agreement among non-elementary graduates was neutral (+9).

No dine-in policy for unvaccinated people

The respondents were also polled on the policy of not allowing the unvaccinated to dine inside restaurants. Almost half (49%) agreed, 36% disagreed, while 14% were undecided.

Balance Luzon (+26) and Metro Manila (+16) had moderate net agreement with this policy, while it was neutral in Mindanao (+3) and the Visayas (-9).

Junior high school graduates (+17), college graduates (+13), and non-elementary graduates (+12) expressed moderate net agreement with this policy, but elementary graduates had a neutral net agreement at +6.  – Rappler.com