39% of Latvians remain insecure about traveling abroad due to Covid-19 (25% feel rather insecure, 14% – completely insecure), according to BENU Pharmacy Stress Thermometer data obtained in cooperation with GEMIUS, surveying more than 2,300 respondents.
44% of respondents feel safe about going abroad (27% feel rather safe, 17% – completely safe), while 17% could not give a specific answer. Residents feel much safer to attend public events here in Latvia – 69% of respondents feel safe about going to public places and events (43% feel rather safe, 26% – completely safe), 23% are insecure (20% – rather insecure, 3% – completely unsafe), but 8% could not give a specific opinion.
Interestingly, men feel much safer both when going abroad and when visiting public places.
38% of women (26% feel more secure, 12% – completely safe) and 51% of men (28% feel more secure, 23% – completely safe) feel safe traveling abroad. 66% of women (44% – rather safe, 22% – completely safe) and 71% of men (41% – rather safe, 30% – completely safe) feel safe attending public places and events here in Latvia.
Comparing the data by the language spoken in the family, among Latvians 71% of respondents feel safe going to public places and events (43% – rather safe, 28% – completely safe), while among Russian speakers this indicator is 55% (41% – rather safe, 14% – completely safe). Latvians also feel safer in general when traveling abroad. Among Russian-speakers, 40% (29% – rather safe, 11% – completely safe) of this group of respondents feel safe going abroad, while for Latvians this indicator is 45% (27% – rather safe, 18% – completely safe).
According to the age of the respondents, young people feel safer both when traveling abroad and when attending public places and events.
At the age of 18 to 24, 72% of respondents feel safe traveling abroad, at the age of 25 to 34 – 48%, at the age of 35 to 44 – 41%, at the age of 45 to 54 – 44%, but at the age of 55 to 74 years – 29%.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the pandemic, the anxiety about visiting public places was significantly greater than now, when a part of the population has been vaccinated and there is much more information about the virus. Data obtained at the end of March 2020 revealed that 78% of respondents felt insecure before visiting public places (63% – rather insecure, 15% – completely insecure), while 16% answered that they felt safe in this regard. Recent data show that 23% of respondents currently feel insecure about attending public places and events (20% – rather insecure, 3% – completely insecure), but 69% feel rather or completely safe.
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