City of Salem Releases Results from COVID-19 Response Survey

The City of Salem today released the complete results from its recent COVID-19 Response Survey, which was conducted from December 22, 2020 to January 18, 2021. A total of 2,463 residents responded to the survey, providing critical information to help shape and guide the City’s ongoing response to the pandemic and the economic recovery.

Key results from the survey include:

• 69% of respondents report having received a COVID test in the previous four weeks, up from about 4% who reported having received a test in May.
• 94% of respondents say they always wear a mask when indoors in public and 86% say they do so when outdoors in public, but fewer than half do so when they are around COVID positive or high-risk household members in their own home. 73% said the City was doing an excellent or good job with mask enforcement and education.
• 42% of respondents said that the overall emotional/social health of their family is currently poor or only fair.
• Despite limited capacity at hospitals, only 5% of respondents said access to medical services is a major or moderate problem for them right now.
• 88% respondents reported that they have generally good access to COVID testing and 85% said the City is doing an excellent or good job providing testing opportunities.
• Around one-quarter to one-third of respondents reported challenges with nervousness, anxiety, depression, or feeling of isolation.
• Just under half of respondents said COVID has had a negative impact on their household income.
• 8 in 10 respondents rated Salem’s response to the pandemic so far to be excellent or good, 7 in 10 said the same about the Commonwealth’s response, and a little more than 1 in 10 said the same about the federal government’s response. In May those ratios were 8 in 10, 8 in 10, and 2 in 10 respectively.
• 85% of respondents said the City is doing an excellent or good job keeping residents informed during the pandemic, roughly equal to the number who said the same in May.
• 73% of respondents said the City is doing an excellent or good job protecting residents from COVID-19 and two-thirds of respondents who had an opinion on the City’s local business support and recovery efforts said they were excellent or good.
• 72% of respondents who had an opinion on the Salem Public Schools’ response to COVID-19 said the district was doing an excellent or good job to safely provide in-school and online learning opportunities for students.
• When asked if they were more worried about negative health impacts from reopening the economy too soon or the negative economic impacts from staying closed, 79% said they were more worried about the negative health impacts from opening the economy too soon. A survey in May found 77% felt this way at the time.
• 88% of respondents said they would get the COVID vaccine when it became available to them, with another 8% saying they were unsure. Only 4% said they would not get the vaccine.

“I’m very grateful to the thousands of Salem residents who took the time to share their feedback and thoughts with us as we continue to plan and implement actions to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Mayor Kim Driscoll. “The data from this survey is being closely reviewed by our City’s COVID Response Task Force and we will develop additional strategies and approaches based on this important information.”