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Most West Aussies still trying to maintain their distance

June 15, 2020

 

We’ve all been through a lot lately. COVID-19 has impacted the way many people around the world live and work; everyone has a story to tell, you just have to ask them. But in the scheme of things, we’ve been fortunate in WA – a combination of strong leadership, following the best medical advice and all doing our part to stop the spread of the virus has got WA fast on the road to recovery. ‘The envy of the world’, as our Premier Mark McGowan puts it.

WA is currently in Stage 3 of easing restrictions, which has seen the number of people permitted at non-work gatherings increase, the re-opening of a range of businesses and attractions, and a replacement of the 4 square meter rule with a much more manageable 2 square meters.

For many of us, maintaining social distance from others has been one of the hardest things to do. So on the back of these latest changes to restrictions (and before we move into Phase 4 later this month), we wanted to check in with the people of WA to see how important they still think social distancing is and how many are still keeping it up.

Our People’s Voice survey this weekend of more than 800 West Australians found more than 3 in 5 (61%) still believe it’s very or extremely important to maintain social distancing when outside their home. This is pretty consistent across age and gender as well – with just an ever-so-slight skew towards older age groups saying it’s more important.

To get an even better understanding, we went a step further and asked West Aussies how often they’re socially distancing in various situations, from shopping, catching public transport and visiting friends.

Positively, the majority say they’re still keeping 1.5 meters away from others most or all of the time in most situations – particularly when out and about at the shops, when catching public transport or at a restaurant. See the full results below…

It looks like keeping distance at the gym and at work is a little harder for us to do – while the majority are still doing their best, a little more say they’re not distancing at all at these places, or only some of the time.

And for many, they draw the line at keeping distance when visiting family and friends, or having them over at their houses.

We’ll check in again with how people are feeling about this once we hit Phase 4 in a few weeks – will people start letting their guard down more?

In the meantime, check out some of our other People’s Voice blogs to see how West Aussies have been tracking!