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Opinions of Sunday, 19 April 2020

Columnist: Raphael Yagley

Ghanaians concerned about the negative impact of COVID-19 on the economy

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A recent survey conducted by Leadccoach consult has revealed interesting findings with regards to the level of citizenship concern on probable COVID-19 impact and optimism to finding a remedy to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The online survey was completed by mainly Ghanaians with tertiary level education (88%), currently living in Greater Accra (36%), Ashanti (19%), Central (14%) and other regions (31%) of Ghana. At a 95% confidence level, the study sample yielded country-level results at a 5% margin of error.

Citizenship concern of COVID-19 impact

Respondents were asked to express their level of concern on the likely impact of the outbreak on several factors that the pandemic may have on their lives.

The majority of Ghanaians expressed a high level of concern on three probable negative impacts of the pandemic in their lives. 73% of Ghanaians were “very concerned” about whether they or someone closer (close relatives and friends) to them will get sick and/or die of coronavirus.74% of Ghanaians were also “very concerned” that there will be a widespread outbreak of coronavirus across the country.

Surprisingly, Ghanaians expressed their highest level of concern for the pandemic impact on the national economy than on any other probable impact.

On a self-rating of their health during this time of the outbreak, 38% of Ghanaians rated their health as “excellent”, 46% considers their current health condition as “good” and 16% rating their health condition as “fair/poor”.

Level of optimism for a remedy

As public health specialists across the world continue to seek remedy to this pandemic, Ghanaians were quizzed on how long they think it will take for health specialists to find a remedy to the new coronavirus outbreak.

The majority (69%) were optimistic that a remedy to the outbreak will be discovered within 6 months. Few, on the other hand, predicted 6-12 months (22%), 1-5 years (6%) and never (3%).