Cypriots’ trust in government reached rock bottom during the pandemic, as they were disappointed with authorities’ response to coronavirus.
According to Eurofound’s latest survey, public trust towards the government during the pandemic years of 2020 to 2021 crashed.
Starting with an overall trust score of 5.4/10 in April-May 2020, it dropped to 4.8/ 10 in June-July 2020, to crash in February-March 2021 to 3.1/10.
The only government institution making the grade was the General Health System scoring 5.6 out of 10.
However, people’s trust in the institution had dropped from the 6.1/10 it had reached in June-July.
Shortly after the pandemic broke out, trust in the health system was 5.5/10 (April-May).
Trust in the police reduced; in April-May 2020, it reached 5.8/10; in June-July 2020 to 5.1/10 and in February-March 2021, it fell to 4.1/10.
Police had to enforce many unpopular COVID restrictions on movement and gatherings.
People are less healthy
According to the survey, during the pandemic, the health status of citizens worsened, affecting their quality of life and happiness.
Those who stated that their health status was good or very good decreased gradually, while the percentage of those who reported a poor health status increased.
The percentage who declared that their health condition was very good during April-May 2020 was 30.6%, dropping to 24.2% by February-March 2021.
Those who declared their health status was good in April May 2020 were 44.3%, dropping to 41.2% in February-March 2021.
On the other hand, those declaring a poor state of health increased by 3.2% in April-May 2020, reaching 5.6% in February-March 2021.
Between April-May 2020 (5.7/10) and February-March 2021 (5.2/10), there was a slight decrease in happiness levels, although there was a slight increase between June- July 2020, reaching 6.3/10.
Citizens’ happiness ratings increased slightly from April-May 2020 (5.9/10) to June-July 2020 (6.5/10).
Since the pandemic started, coronavirus infections have reached over 622,100 and 1,242 deaths.
Eurofound (European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) is an agency of the European Union which focuses on managing research, gathering information, and communicating its findings to EU member states.
It was set up in May 1975 by the European Council to help improve living and working conditions across Europe and was one of the first bodies established to work on a specific subset of EU policy.
