International COVID-19 tracker update: 25 April

Matthew SmithHead of Data Journalism
April 24, 2020, 11:00 PM GMT+0

Latest round-up of YouGov’s coronavirus survey results

With the coronavirus crisis looking like it may now be around its peak, YouGov’s 26 market COVID-19 tracker has registered little change in public opinion and behaviour since last week.

Fear levels

The greatest shift in fear levels in the latest survey wave has been in Sweden, where the number of people very or fairly scared of catching coronavirus fell seven points to 46%.

Australia and Finland also experienced six-point drops, to 49% and 32% respectively.

The biggest increases in fear took place in India and Canada, but of which saw a five-point increase to 62% and 65%, respectively.

Government approval

France, Spain and Japan continue to languish at the bottom of the list, with only 38% of Spanish and French people thinking their governments have handled the outbreak well and 37% of Japanese people thinking the same in their country. These figures are effectively unchanged since last week.

Behaviour changes

The most notable behaviour changes since last week are to do with face masks.

Having experienced a rapid increase in usage last week, the proportion of Singaporeans donning a protective covering continues to rise. Having previously made the huge jump from 37% to 73% in the space of one week, that figure has since risen a further 12 points to 85%.

There have also been big increases in mask usage in Canada (up 15 points to 31%) and Mexico (up 14 points to 60%).

These two countries also saw the largest increase in the number of people thinking the government should provide face masks, both seeing a seven-point increase on last week to 44% and 55% respectively.

Elsewhere there has also been a significant increase in the number of Danes saying that they are trying to avoid tourists this week – up 17 points to 56%.

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