95% Omanis satisfied with govt steps to curb COVID-19

Muscat: Ninety-five per cent of Omanis are satisfied with the government decisions and measures taken to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to an opinion poll conducted by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI) on coronavirus in May 2020.
Abeer Abdullah Al Mujaini, a member of the Psychology of Youth Volunteering team, a group of young mental health professionals that offers voluntary counselling to those who need it, said people needed to encourage each other to follow the regulations put down by the government to stop the spread of COVID-19.
“The government is doing the right things to support people and make sure the occurrence of the disease does stop during a time like this, and for the most part, I think people believe that the government is doing what it needs to, and there is a lot of trust in their actions,” she said.
“However, one of the things I see is that some people do not believe they can follow the actions that the government has asked them to,” added Al Mujaini. “For example, they do not believe they can stay for a long time without gathering socially, they do not believe they can go extended periods without seeing their relatives, but it is absolutely possible. All it requires is a little bit of belief in oneself and encouragement from others.
“As humans, we are conditioned to be influenced by the things other people say to us,” added Al Mujaini, who is a trained psychologist.
“We must therefore encourage each other to follow what the government has asked us to do during this time. It is actually rather easy and straightforward to follow, and I am sure everyone can do it with support from their friends and family.”
The results showed that the degree of satisfaction was almost 94 per cent on the information provided on the COVID-19 pandemic while 89 per cent of Omanis were following the official data on the pandemic.
TV was the top source of information for citizens at 53. 4 per cent followed by WhatsApp application on which 46. 4 per cent of citizens relied. Instagram application was the third source of information which had 27. 3 per cent visitors.
On the economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on Omanis, 19 per cent said that they or their family members were economically affected in one way or the other. Reduction of salary was the key economic impact and that business or project shutdown have also affected employers. The highest economic impact has been observed in the Muscat Governorate which is double the percentage of South Al Batinah amounting to 12 per cent.