9 out of 10 Indians have one or more contacts in their social network who had Covid: Survey

To understand the extent of spread, LocalCircles — a community social media platform which enables citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy and enforcement interventions — conducted an online survey from November 20 to 23, which received more than 9,000 responses from citizens across 208 districts of India.

At least 88 per cent citizens now have one or more contacts in their social network who have had Covid-19. To understand the extent of spread, LocalCircles — a community social media platform which enables citizens and small businesses to escalate issues for policy and enforcement interventions — conducted an online survey from November 20 to 23, which received more than 9,000 responses from citizens across 208 districts of India.

In a statement, Sachin Taparia, founder of LocalCircles, stated that the platform has observed an increase in citizen posts, suggesting that Covid-19 cases are continuing to increase, but many people are refraining from reporting their symptoms and getting tested. “We conducted a survey that asked citizens how Covid-19 had impacted their social network (family, extended family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, business associates, etc) in the last eight months.

Responses from 9,171 citizens were received, of which 28 per cent said they know 5-10 individuals, 26 per cent said they know 1-4 individuals, 19 per cent said they know more than 20 individuals, and 13 per cent said they know 11-20 individuals in their network who have had Covid-19.

Many instances were also reported when after one person at home tested positive, the reluctance to isolate or get admitted due to the festival season eventually led to the entire family getting infected. In such cases, while only one person added to the official Covid-19 case count, four to six individuals actually had the infection and they could have spread it even further.

Taparia said that after comparing the latest results of November with a similar survey published in September, it has been seen that there is a 29 per cent rise in the number of citizens reporting five or more individuals in their social network who have had Covid-19.

LocalCircles will share the findings of this report with relevant government stakeholders so that action which will reduce Covid-19 spread in the coming weeks, or make reporting and tracking of Covid-19 more accurate, can be taken, added Taparia.

Source: Read Full Article