ABSTRACT
The outbreak of COVID-19 is not only drawing tremendous local and global public attention to the emerging medical and epidemiological issues, but also to social anxiety and the psychological wellbeing of the general public. As people are anxious about contracting the virus, authorities suggest the risk can be mitigated by wearing a mask in public, frequently washing your hands and following social-distancing guidelines. Based on five rounds of probabilistic random sampling, territory-wide public opinion surveys were conducted in Hong Kong from March to August 2020. This paper examines the views of people from different walks of life about their level of worry about contracting the virus, frequency of wearing a medical mask in public, washing their hands, cleaning their homes and the perceived impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on household income and the Hong Kong economy. It is found that while under-privileged, lower-class people are the most vulnerable group, they were not the most-worried group about Hong Kong’s economic future. It was those with a non-establishment political orientation, and those who were dissatisfied with the Hong Kong government who were more worried about an economic recession.
