E-Paper
Coronavirus outbreak: Four in 5 Indians want borders shut till outbreak contained, says online survey
Slightly over half of the respondents (51%) in India are also concerned that someone close to them will be infected by the virus, said the survey conducted between March 12 and March 14.
Nearly four of every five Indians (79%) want international borders to be closed until the Covid-19 outbreak is contained, an online survey by market research company Ipsos has found. This was the highest share among the 12,000 people surveyed across 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Slightly over half of the respondents (51%) in India are also concerned that someone close to them will be infected by the virus, said the survey conducted between March 12 and March 14. Almost five of every nine (55%) employed respondents said the outbreak posed a high or very high threat to their jobs or businesses.
Countries other than India surveyed by Ipsos were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam and China. After India, Vietnam (78%), Italy (76%), China (73%), and Russia (70%) were the top countries where survey respondents wanted international borders closed. 
Countries other than China and India were also surveyed on February 28 and February 29. T
he highest jump in the share of respondents who believed that someone close to them will get infected was in the UK, followed by Australia and Canada. Vietnam had the highest share of respondents who thought someone close to them will get infected in the latest round of the survey, with two-thirds of them agreeing it was likely. 
Italy, France, and the UK have, on the other hand, seen the biggest spike in respondents who think their jobs and businesses are under threat because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Here, too, the share of respondents who felt threatened was the highest in Vietnam.
The respondents were aged 18-74 years old in Canada and the United States and 16-74 years old in the rest of the countries.
