Canadians have evidently reached peak COVID fatigue as a new study reveals that a significant amount of people are planning to break the country’s pandemic rules during spring break.
Insights West, a Canadian market research company, surveyed 1,614 English-speaking Canadians about how often they follow COVID-19 restrictions in their province.
Following provincial restrictions and guidelines day-to-day, about 48 percent of Canadians surveyed said they are abiding by all pandemic-related restrictions or guidelines in their province.
One province, B.C., came up paticularly low in results. The survey revealed that a mere 34 percent of B.C. residents said they follow COVID-19 rules all of the time.
The study asked Canadians if they plan on doing any spring break activities that would violate health and travel orders.
As the break nears, 63 percent of the respondents said they are considering participating in some of the activities mentioned. Activities listed include indoor gatherings, going on vacations, skiing at resorts outside their communities, and flying outside of Canada, to name a few.
At least half of respondents will likely have an indoor visit with family or friends and 30 percent are contemplating road tripping to a vacation destination and staying at a hotel. Twenty-three percent are planning a ski trip.
Sixteen percent are considering travelling outside of Canada.
Rule-breaking consideration is substantially higher among 18 to 34 year olds, the survey shows. Albertans have shown to be among the highest rule-breaking offenders when considering spring break intentions, while British Columbians are the least likely among all Canadians to take a flight of any kind.
There are several reasons why surveyed Canadians said they plan to bend or break the rules.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents said they were keeping their social circle limited and felt they could break the rules on occasion.
As pandemic fatigue rises, 32 percent of respondents said they need to break rules occasionally in order to maintain mental health and stay happy. Twenty-eight percent said they have grown tired of all the COVID-19 rules and accommodations.
“What is interesting is the wide number of reasons Canadians give in justifying their rule-breaking behaviour,” said Steve Mossop, president of Insights West. “Less than half of us are serious about following all of the rules, and that is problematic if we want to see a faster decline of the numbers.”
