Coronavirus : PM Modi’s approval ratings highest among world leaders for handling of Covid-19 situation

Narendra Modi government still enjoys high approval ratings for its handling of the Covid-19 situation in India with more than three-fourths of respondents endorsing how the government is dealing with the crisis, as per the IANS-CVoter Covid-19 Tracker.

As per the latest poll with a sample size of 1,723, 77.3 per cent respondents agree that the government is handling the crisis well, endorsing the Modi-led government’s actions on tackling Covid-19 while 19.1 per cent disagree.

However, the approval ratings are not as high as in the previous months and the long economic lull seems to be testing people’s patience. In the April-June period, the approval ratings were in the 90s and 80s, but have been coming down lately.

Several months into the corona crisis and with number of cases hitting new highs, almost 60 per cent of respondents feel they could get the infection. To a question in the survey, “I am afraid that either myself or someone in my family may actually catch the coronavirus”, 59.8 per cent agreed while 34.9 per cent disagreed with the proposition.

However, the corona situation has not created panic as almost half the respondents feel that the threat from coronavirus is exaggerated. As many as 49.3 per cent of the respondents said that the threat is exaggerated while 41.2 per cent disagreed.

With the newfound experience of lockdowns, people have become more cautious about stocking up groceries and rations. A total of 54.3 per cent said they have rations for more than three weeks while 44.7 per cent said they have rations of less than three weeks.

The situation for those without work or laid off from work has not changed much since the lockdown was lifted.

While 23.97 per cent were completely laid off or out of work since the lockdown was implemented, 21.57 per cent are still out of work since the lockdown was eased.

Surprisingly, a massive 91.44 per cent of the respondents have reported that no one in their family or surroundings been infected from coronavirus despite the figures going into lakhs of cases.