Slovaks Would Prefer Lockdown to Countrywide Testing

Bratislava, December 15 (TASR) – Slovaks would prefer a lockdown to mandatory countrywide testing, but at the same time there is a relatively large group of respondents, namely 36.1 percent, that doesn’t agree with either of these two options, according to the results of a survey called ‘How Are You, Slovakia?’, which was conducted on the initiative of MNFORCE agency, the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) and Seesame communications agency.

The survey has been monitoring the attitudes of Slovaks since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak.

More than one fifth (21.4 percent) of the respondents were fully in favour of attempting to halt the outbreak with a lockdown, while mandatory testing is clearly supported by 14.8 percent. When less clearly defined responses tending in favour of either option are included, the ratio of lockdown to testing supporters is 40.7 percent to 23.1 percent.

Miloslav Bahna from the SAV Institute of Sociology commented that only a declining group of respondents who approve of the Government’s approach to managing the pandemic are among the supporters of mandatory testing. He sees two possible explanations for this. “One is the strong connection between testing and the prime minister and his declining popularity,” he said, adding that the reaction to testing can also be seen as a response to the prime minister’s procedures.

According to Bahna, a second explanation is that mandatory testing is perceived by people as a bigger invasion of their privacy and something that requires additional active participation as opposed to the restrictions that accompany a lockdown.