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We're conducting, every two weeks, a scientific survey to help us understand how COVID-19 is impacting the personal and economic well-being of Tampa Bay residents.
Here's what we learned from our third survey.
- A growing number of Tampa Bay residents now believe the end of the COVID-19 crisis is near, but the virus will have a lasting impact on the way we interact with businesses and each other.
- As the state moved into the first phase of re-opening this week, the vast majority of Tampa Bay residents indicated that they would only feel comfortable returning to normal activities when businesses implement a rigorous checklist of health and safety precautions, largely in the form of sanitization and social distancing measures.
- An increased percentage of residents are also likely to adopt new behaviors post-pandemic, including maintaining a physical distance from others (+32%), wearing face masks in public (+26%) and utilizing telemedicine options (+21%), but significantly fewer residents will shake hands and hug (-20%).
We also found that residents who had their hours or wages reduced due to COVID-19 are more optimistic than they were two weeks ago about their ability to support their household, but African-American residents continue to be more concerned about the impact of the crisis on their health and employment.
Additionally, the gaps are growing wider among our government leaders when it comes to their response to COVID-19.
Keep reading to learn more.
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24% of Tampa Bay residents now believe the COVID-19 crisis is near the end, which is more than double the 11% of residents who responded similarly two weeks ago.
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As we moved into the first phase of re-opening this week, and many restaurants and retail outlets prepared to welcome customers for the first time in more than a month, the vast majority of residents indicated that they would only feel comfortable returning to normal activities when businesses implement a rigorous checklist of health and safety precautions.
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These precautions were also evident in the behaviors residents are likely to adopt post-pandemic. 32% of Tampa Bay residents who infrequently maintained a physical distance from others before COVID-19 will do so frequently after COVID-19. Likewise, significantly more residents will wear face masks in public (+26%) and utilize telemedicine options (+21%), but significantly fewer residents will shake hands or hug (-20%).
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Personal and Economic Well-Being
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Of the working residents whose wages or hours were reduced due to COVID-19, half now believe they can financially support their household for more than 62 days, up from 34 days just two weeks ago, which may reflect a positive response to the announcement of re-opening plans.
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About half of all Tampa Bay residents are still “very concerned” about COVID-19, but a significantly higher number of African-American residents (68%) are likely to express the same sentiment.
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African-American residents are also more concerned about losing their job (47% versus 24% of all residents) and are 9% less likely to believe the situation will be better within the next 30 to 60 days.
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52% of Tampa Bay residents rate Tampa Mayor Jane Castor’s response to COVID-19 as “excellent” or “very good,” which is the highest among local, state and federal elected officials and the only rating to steadily increase since the initial survey.
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By contrast, the number of residents who rate the response of President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress as “poor” has increased by 10% and 11%, respectively, since the initial survey.
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For this report, Downs & St. Germain Research of Tallahassee surveyed a demographically representative group of 384 adult residents in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco and Hernando counties on April 29 and 30, 2020.
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The survey has a 95 percent confidence interval with a 5 percent margin of error. It will be conducted every two weeks to track over time the impact of COVID-19 on the region and resident sentiment regarding related public policy issues.
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COVID-19 Tampa Bay Sentiment Survey
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