CDG Survey Reveals that Most Pakistanis Underestimated Covid-19 in Lockdown

Center for Global Development (CDG), in collaboration with the Citizens Foundation (TCF) and Center for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP), has published a report which investigates the implications of the Coronavirus pandemic on students’ education, livelihoods, and health in Pakistan.

The report is based on a phone survey that was carried out between 3 to 17 June. More than 1200 households participated in the survey.


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According to the survey, students in 66% of households in Pakistan did not use technology to continue their learning process during the Coronavirus lockdown.

Students in only 23% of households watched TeleSchool on PTV. During the lockdown, the federal government had launched TeleSchool which imparted education to students of grades 1 to 12 every day for 10 hours from 8 am to 6 pm. Of those households where students watched TeleSchool, only 35% had a television.

CDG has recommended that the government ought to prioritize mitigating the learning loss of the students. Furthermore, more than 50% of households reported a decrease in income.

Only 20% of households stated that they became food insecure during the lockdown, however, they were covered by the Ehsaas Emergency Cash program. The initiative was launched by the federal government under which it disbursed Rs. 203 billion among 16.9 million deserving families at the peak of the Coronavirus outbreak


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While lauding PM Imran Khan’s social protection response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the CDG has recommended the government to expand the coverage of the Ehsaas program.

Lastly, almost all the households reported that they feared contracting the novel virus and adopted precautionary measures including facemasks and hand sanitizers. However, 75% of the respondents claimed that they firmly believed that their family members will not contract the viral infection.

When asked to compare the risk of contracting Covid-19 against TB, 78% of households responded that there might be a similar risk of contracting both diseases. However, studies have confirmed that the chances of contracting Coronavirus are 74% higher than that of TB.

CDG has concluded that these findings suggest most households underestimated the risk of Coronavirus disease that has infected 39.2 million and killed 1.1 million people so far worldwide.



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