Public Perception of the First Major SARS-Cov-2 Outbreak in the Suceava County, Romania

The first months of 2020 were marked by the rapid spread of the acute respiratory disease, which swiftly reached the proportions of a pandemic. The city and county of Suceava, Romania, faced an unprecedented crisis in March and April 2020, triggered not only by the highest number of infections natio...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of environmental research and public health 2021-02, Vol.18 (4), p.1406
Main Authors: Lucheș, Daniel, Saghin, Despina, Lupchian, Maria-Magdalena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
COVID-19 - psychology
Crises
Disease Outbreaks
Epidemics
Epidemiology
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health problems
Humans
Outbreaks
Public Opinion
Respiratory diseases
Romania - epidemiology
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The first months of 2020 were marked by the rapid spread of the acute respiratory disease, which swiftly reached the proportions of a pandemic. The city and county of Suceava, Romania, faced an unprecedented crisis in March and April 2020, triggered not only by the highest number of infections nationwide but also by the highest number of infected health professionals (47.1% of the infected medical staff nationwide, in April 2020). Why did Suceava reach the peak number of COVID-19 cases in Romania? What were the vulnerability factors that led to the outbreak, the closure of the city of Suceava and neighboring localities, and the impossibility of managing the crisis with local resources? What is the relationship between the population's lack of confidence in the authorities' ability to solve the crisis, and their attitude towards the imposed measures? The present article aims to provide answers to the above questions by examining the attitudes of the public towards the causes that have led to the outbreak of an epidemiological crisis, systemic health problems, and the capacity of decision makers to intervene both at local and national level. The research is based on an online survey, conducted between April and May 2020, resulting in a sample of 1231 people from Suceava County. The results highlight that the development of the largest COVID-19 outbreak in Romania is, without a doubt, the result of a combination of factors, related to the medical field, decision makers, and the particularities of the population's behavior.
ISSN:1660-4601
1661-7827
1660-4601
DOI:10.3390/ijerph18041406