The state of threat, uncertainty and anxiety that inevitably accompany the COVID-19 pandemic have an impact on people’s behavior and on the way they act and make decisions in this unprecedented context. Nielsen set out to find and understand what is happening to people during this period through a global study (in over 70 countries) that continues, locally, in the form of a monitoring study: Impact of COVID-19 on the behavior of Romanians in the urban area, March 2020, according to Business-Review.eu.
About 93 percent of Romanians in cities (ages 18-65) are concerned at least to some extent with the coronavirus epidemic in Romania, and 71 percent believe that the risk of spread is high or very high.
39 percent of the Romanians consider that the pandemic will end in the next 2-3 months. Consumers in Romania join those in Greece, Russia, France and Spain in an optimistic perspective that things will rebalance in less than 3 months, while consumers in Germany, the Netherlands, UK, Turkey and Ireland are more reserved in this regard.
About 82 percent seek epidemic information several times a day, and another 14 percent seek information once a day. Uncertainty about the evolution of the pandemic feeds this acute need to keep up with the latest information about the virus and its spread. This massive consumption of negative news can reverse the increase in stress levels, in addition to the benefit of being informed.
TV news is the main source of information, following the online social networks and the websites of the authorities. Young people are less informed about TV (66 percent of those aged 18-22 compared to 82 percent of all those aged 18-65), but for them this is the most used source of information. Social media is a source of information used by all age groups equally.
About 39 percent – 2 out of 5 – work from home to a greater extent than before the outbreak of the epidemic. Here it is interesting to investigate, further, what is the impact of work at home on productivity, on family life, how gender roles are redefined when all family members live 24 hours a day in the same space, how they merge or conflict. the dimension of “work” and the dimension of “living” in the absence of those “separators” well defined before Covid-19, such as the road to the office and back. canceled because of the epidemic, and 64 percent are still waiting to see how things evolve. So far, only 11 percent intend to go on a planned vacation.
Also, 54 percent expect Romania to face more than a year the economic crisis caused by the epidemic.
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