As the pandemic enters its second wave in Canada, attention is rebounding but concerns about COVID-19 remain stable.
On November 16th, INNOVATIVE released the results of an online poll tracking Canadian attitudes related to COVID-19, including issue priority, attention, concern and key attitudes.
Health has now moved ahead of affordability as the top concern for government with 7 in 10 Canadians (69%) mentioning health care as one of their top three issues. In October, only 3 points separated the share of Canadians who listed affordability (61%) and healthcare (64%). This gap has grown to 10% with only 59% listing affordability as a top three concern.
Attention to COVID-19 news is growing after declining over the Summer, but has not yet hit the high it had in early Spring. While in March 95% of Canadians were paying either very or somewhat close attention, that number is at 88% today. The big story here is the decline in intensity. Those who say they are paying very close attention has dropped 20 points from 63% in the spring to 43% now.
Despite increasing attention to the outbreak, concern about infection has remained stable. Today 77% of Canadians were concerned that a vulnerable friend or relative would contract the disease (77% in October) and 65% were concerned that they themselves would contract it (65% in October).
Read the full report here
