Discomfort while wearing masks make physical distancing difficult: Study

The majority of responses, 61.10 percent, said that they cannot maintain safe physical distance in public spaces during the pandemic, the study found.

The respondents said even if they want to, it is not possible to maintain the distance as others around them do not follow the rule. 

According to 67.40 percent, wearing masks causes discomfort and heat stress, while 20.90 percent mentioned that they felt stuffiness and had difficulty in breathing.

While 72.60 percent viewed regular hand washing as beneficial, 6.10 percent said they cannot remember to wash hands. 

The findings of the online opinion survey, were revealed in a digitally-organised media briefing today.

The survey was jointly conducted by Brac and Prothom Alo in association with Lifebuoy.

Some 320,071 responses were received in the survey conducted from 31 July to 18 August this year.

The survey comprised 10 questions, five of which were on wearing masks, four on hand-washing and one on social distancing practices.

When asked how masks can reduce the risk of contracting Covid-19, 85.20 percent viewed that wearing masks properly helps prevent respiratory droplets of sneeze and cough carrying the virus from travelling into the air.

However, 8.70 percent said that masks prevent contaminated air from entering lungs. But, 5.40 percent respondents did not believe that masks can reduce the risk of Covid-19.

Some 35.50 percent respondents washed their hands for three to five times the day before they participated in the survey while 25.60 percent respondents washed their hands more than 10 times and 27.70 percent washed hands for six to nine times.

Alarmingly, 9 percent responses show that they washed hands only one to two times. 

On hand-washing habit, 38.40 percent responses deemed forgetfulness as the biggest hurdle to wash their hands regularly.

For 44.90 percent responses, unavailability of soap and water when needed made washing hands difficult.  

However, around 6.70 percent responses said they could not wash hands regularly because soap is too costly.

Another 9.20 percent mentioned lack of time as the cause. 

Some 90.10 percent responses think that the standard 20-second duration rule to wash hands should be followed.

However, 4.6 percent said the standard duration should be 10 seconds.

According to 30.10 percent responses, lack of space mainly bars them from keeping safe physical distance of three feet in the public spaces.

However, 61 percent responses maintained that they cannot keep the required distance as others do not always follow the rule.

Meanwhile, 8.10 percent said they just forget they should follow the safe distance rule while in a public place.

Mushtaq Hossain, former chief scientific officer of IEDCR, said, as Covid-19 has been in the country for about five months so, it's not possible for us to sit at home anymore.

We have to run our daily life maintaining reasonable behaviour and taking effective measures and so, the public awareness campaign about health safety need to continue, he added.

 He suggested that hand washing stands with soap and water should be placed where necessary and adequate diagnosis and quarantine facilities have to be ensured.

"We also need sufficient number of volunteers in every neighbourhood to ward off the social stigma around Covid-19 infection", said Hossain.

He thinks opinion polls such as this one will help us have a better picture of what's going on in the field.

Afzal Hasan Khan, marketing director of Unilever Bangladesh, said, "Lifebuoy has a mission to save lives. It has been working to prevent the spread of contagious diseases by helping people maintain their hygiene and they are a part of this initiative because of that obligation."

Brac associate director Dr Morseda Chowdhury said that Brac has stood by the people of Bangladesh since the pandemic broke out.

To raise public awareness and provide food and cash assistance for poor and unemployed households, Brac has been working across the country with holistic measures, she added.

"We have directly provided services to 79 million people since the pandemic had begun," Chowdhury said.

Special Correspondent of Prothom Alo Shishir additionally remarked, "The general public are not taking this danger seriously, but lack of rigorous surveillance of the situation may bring more suffering than what we have experienced till now."