After a month of relatively few new cases of infection, the percentage of the Swiss public that supports mandatory mask wearing on public transport is in decline, according to a recent survey run by Sotomo on behalf of RTS.
Masks, testing and tracing apps have been a central part of the response to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in countries in Asia that have been the most successful at controlling the spread of the virus. However in Switzerland, support for such measures has declined.
Across all of Switzerland the most recent poll suggests 30% support mandatory mask wearing on public transport. German-speaking Swiss (28%) appear less supportive of the idea than French- (33%) and Italian-speakers (34%).
Support for mandatory mask wearing on public transport across all of Switzerland has fallen from a comfortable majority to 30% since the beginning of the pandemic.
Willingness to use a tracing app was higher than support for mandatory mask wearing on buses and trains. Across all of Switzerland 54% said they were willing to use a tracing app. German-speaking Swiss (53%) were less supportive of the idea than French- (57%) and Italian-speakers (68%). To be effective, the app needs 60% of the population to use it, so there might not be sufficient public support for it to work properly in French- and German-speaking Switzerland.
In June 2020, willingness to use the app across all of Switzerland fell from 65% to 54% between April and June 2020.
German-speaking Switzerland was less affected by the virus than the rest of Switzerland. In French-speaking Geneva the recorded infection rate was 1.1%. In Italian-speaking Ticino the rate was 0.9%. In German-speaking Zurich it was only 0.24%.
When asked about the negative impacts of the pandemic, the biggest concern was the economy. 47% listed this as their biggest concern. Long-term loss of personal freedom was the next most important concern (21%), followed by international conflict (13%) and social conflict (11%). Only 4% were concerned about a collapse of the healthcare system, while 4% said the had no concerns related to the virus.
The survey is based on answers of 31,011 respondents over the age of 15 across Switzerland. It was carried out between 5 and 8 June 2020.
More on this:
Sotomo survey (in German)
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JOYPATTINSON says
Is nobody concerned that hundreds of elderly people don’t even know what an APP is and many more do not have iPhones or Smartphones and neither want nor need them.
JOYPATTINSON says
How very odd you write that people who speak differing languages are reacting differently. Surely you should have written German speaking AREAS, French.speaking AREAS and Italians likewise.