A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed nearly 60 percent of Filipinos believe that the worst of the Covid-19 health crisis “is yet to come.”
The poll was conducted from July 3 to 6 amid the Covid-19 pandemic which has caused lenient lockdown measures to be imposed throughout the country.
The total Filipinos who agreed that the “the worst is yet to come” increased to 57 percent in July 2020 from 47 percent last May.
A total of 1,555 adult Filipinos participated in the poll.
‘Worst is over’
Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the results of the poll were understandable, but asserted that “the worst is over.”
“Naintindihan po natin iyong pessimism ng ating kababayan dahil napakahirap po talaga nitong pandemya na dinulot nito ‘no. Pero ang masasabi ko lang po, the worst is over!” Roque said during Wednesday’s Laging Handa virtual presser.
Roque admitted that the pandemic has caused the country’s economy to reach “rock bottom.”
“Sinara natin ang ekonomiya, kaya nga po ngayon ang ating panawagan sa lahat, puwede po tayong mabuhay na nandiyan pa ang Covid… basta pag-ingatan po ang ating mga kalusugan para tayo ay makapaghanapbuhay at makakamit natin ito sa pamamagitan ng hugas, mask at iwas,” he said.
The country has been under a state of calamity since President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation No. 929 on March 16.
Due to the pandemic, the country’s economy entered recession in the second quarter of 2020.
In August, the SWS released results of a poll which found a record-high 45 percent of Filipinos (27.1 million) jobless amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
As of Sept. 16, 272,934 Filipinos have been infected with Covid-19. John Ezekiel J. Hirro