Filipinos wear masks when going out, but most of them not from NCR or Luzon

MANILA, Philippines – At least 77 percent of Filipinos said that they now use face masks outside their homes as a precautionary measure against COVID-19, a recent survey from Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

Aside from that, SWS’s survey findings released Monday also revealed that 68 percent of their respondents, who were interviewed online, are washing their hands several times a day, while 64 percent practice physical distancing.

In contrast, only 0.3 percent of the respondents never wore a mask, while two percent said they rarely do so and four percent said sometimes.  In terms of washing hands, none of the respondents said that they do not wash their hands, with only one percent saying that they do it rarely.

However, the survey also revealed that the use of face masks is highest among residents in the Visayas at 80 percent, followed by Mindanao (79 percent), Metro Manila (78 percent), and Balance Luzon (75 percent) — despite most of the lockdowns imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic centered on Metro Manila and Luzon.

Moreover, the number of people who frequently washes their hands are higher in Visayas and Mindanao (74 percent and 73 percent), compared to Metro Manila and Luzon (68 percent and 63 percent).

While several cases have also been recorded in Visayas and Mindanao provinces, Metro Manila is generally regarded as the epicenter of the health crisis.  According to the Department of Health’s COVID-19 tracker, 9,234 of the 14,318 total coronavirus cases in the Philippines can be found at the National Capital Region (NCR).

In comparison, only 440 cases were recorded in Mindanao, and 2,155 cases in the Visayas.

“The proportion of those who always use a face mask hardly varies in the Enhance Community Quarantine (ECQ) areas at 77%, and General Community Quarantine (GCQ) areas at 78% [Table 2],” SWS said.

As of now, health authorities said that there are 14,669 coronavirus-infected patients in the country, with 886 deaths and 3,412 recoveries.  Worldwide, there are now 5.505 million cases, with 346,507 people dying and 2.246 million patient-recoveries.

SWS said that they surveyed 4,010 working-age Filipinos (aged 15 and above) through mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).  These were divided in proportion to the real population figures, with 294 coming from Metro Manila, 1,645 from Balance Luzon, 792 from Visayas, and 1,279 in Mindanao.

The survey maintains sampling error margins of ±2% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, ±2 for Balance Luzon, ±3% Visayas, and ±3% in Mindanao.