61% of people ready to take Covid-19 vaccine: Survey

GOQii, a smart-tech-enabled, preventive healthcare platform, launched its India Fit Report 2021 to share insights into the impact of Covid-19 on people’s health and lifestyles. The report deals especially with citizens’ perception of the vaccine roll-out.

The survey revealed that 79 per cent of the respondents felt that India was effective in curbing Covid-19. Almost 89 per cent of surveyed respondents feel that the Centre was effective in curbing the Covid-19 pandemic. As for the state governments, only 25 per cent of the respondents think that they were effective in curbing the spread of Covid-19.

Vaccine hesitancy

Last December, a previous survey had revealed that almost 53 per cent of the respondents were apprehensive of the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the recent survey saw a decline in this apprehension.

Sixty-one per cent of Indians are fine with being administered either Covishied (31 per cent), Covaxin (18 per cent), or both. 23 per cent are still not willing to take either of the vaccines and the remaining 16 per cent are unaware of these vaccines.

Fitness amid pandemic

Due to the lockdown this year, people were forced to limit their time spent outside for physical activity such as walking due to restrictions enforced by the government on public spaces and gyms in order to maintain social distancing.

This led to a drastic drop in the average steps logged by Indians starting from late March when the lockdown was first announced. In 2020, the average steps were 66 per cent of 2019 values.

However, the figure does not necessarily indicate that Indians were more inactive this year as they may still be engaging in other physical activities like working out at home.

During the lockdown period, many people continued their exercise, yoga, workout, or any other form of physical activity from their home. Almost 19 per cent of people who used to go to the gym or any other fitness center’s mentioned that they stopped doing any physical activity including their workout. More than 50 per cent of respondents said that they started working out on their own in their homes.

Attending festivities

In conclusion, while the Covid-19 inoculation drive is in full swing, Indians have gradually begun easing back into their routines and socialising.

The survey findings revealed that eating out at restaurants (27.10 per cent), attending a family function, birthdays (25.95 per cent) and attending weddings (19.54 per cent) were among the top three activities that Indians did in the last three months.

Speaking about the study, Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO of GOQii said in a statement, “The GOQii India Fit report sought to understand how the citizens of India felt towards the initiatives taken by the government and the vaccines launched by organizations to curb the pandemic.”

He added, “We, at GOQii commend the efforts of the government to help the nation see through these difficult times. During the last year, there has been a renewed focus on boosting immunity and staying healthy. One important lesson that we can all learn from this pandemic is that preventive healthcare is the only way forward.”

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