Concerns about Covid-19 dropped to the lowest level in June, globally, according to a recent survey report released by Ipsos.

The pandemic concerns dropped to 36 per cent in June from 42 per cent in May and 45 per cent in March and April. It was at 50 per cent — the highest level — in January and February.

The top five countries where concerns about the pandemic stood at the lowest last month were Israel at 7 per cent, Russia at 13 per cent, Hungary at 14 per cent, Sweden at 21 per cent and Columbia at 22 per cent.

India’s concerns stood at 62 per cent, among the highest. The top five countries where concerns about the virus were the highest last month included Malaysia at 76 per cent, followed by Japan at 63 per cent, India at 62 per cent, Brazil at 59 per cent and Saudi Arabia at 53 per cent. The 28-country survey by Ipsos was conducted between May 21and June 4, 2021.

Vaccination progress

Incidentally, some of the countries that have the lowest coronavirus concerns also have vaccinated a comparatively higher share of their population. Case in point, Israel.

The country had fully vaccinated 57.4 per cent of its population till Monday, according to data from Bloomberg.

Similarly, countries such as Hungary and Sweden had also fully vaccinated 52.6 per cent and 34.5 per cent of their population respectively. But Russia and Colombia had inoculated only 10.2 per cent and 16.5 per cent of their demography.

On the other hand, countries such as India and Saudi Arabia where concerns of coronavirus were at the higher end in June had vaccinated only 5.3 per cent and 6.7 per cent of their population. Malaysia had fully inoculated 10.5 per cent of its demography against the virus, and Brazil, 14.5 per cent. Japan, where the Tokyo Summer Olympics is scheduled to take place from the 23rd of this month, had only 16.9 per cent of its population fully vaccinated till Monday.

Daily infections

The number of daily cases has also been falling in countries where concern regarding the virus are reducing. For example, Hungary, which recorded 1,000-2,000 infections in the first week of May has been registering anywhere less than 150 cases during the last couple of weeks, according to data from Our World in Data. Similarly, Sweden, which had recorded 5,000-15,000 cases in the beginning of May, has been recording fewer than 1,000 infections in the last couple of weeks.

On the other hand, the number of daily cases has been increasing slowly in countries such as Malaysia and Japan over the last few days. In India and Brazil, while the infections have been coming down, the daily cases are still higher than those in most other countries.

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