New survey shows 86% of respondents rate home office regulation as appropriate

The occupational health and safety regulation regarding the coronavirus has been in effect throughout Germany since the end of January. It requires companies to offer their employees the opportunity to work from home, as far as their work permits.

As the results of the 28th edition of the BfR-Corona-Monitor, a regular survey by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), show, the regulation meets with the approval of the majority of the population.

86 percent of the respondents rate the home office regulation as appropriate. This illustrates that people also accept changes in their everyday occupational life in order to contain the coronavirus."

Dr. Andreas Hensel, Professor and BfR-President, BfR Federal Institute for Risk Assessment

Day-care centers and schools are still closed except for emergency care. However, this measure is judged as appropriate by a decreasing number of respondents: Since the beginning of the year, approval has dropped by 10 percentage points from 67 percent to now 57 percent.

A similar development can be seen in the acceptance of the closure of shops: In the current survey, about half of the respondents consider the measure to be appropriate. Shortly before Christmas, this figure was still at 66 percent.

The lockdown, which has been in place since November, is increasingly perceived as a burden. The number of people who are worried about their social relationships rose from 30 percent at the beginning of the year to 40 percent in the current poll and is thus higher than at any other time in the survey.

In addition, the proportion of people who think the existing contact restrictions are appropriate fell to 69 percent, which is at a similarly low level as in the early summer of 2020.

However, concern about the effects of the coronavirus on the economic situation and physical health has remained fairly consistent at between 20 and 23 percent in recent weeks. In the current survey, a quarter say they are concerned about their own mental health.

The age group of 14 to 39-year-olds is particularly affected: Here, just under half of the respondents are worried about their social relationships and a good third about their mental health. This is considerably less the case in the older age groups.