Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: 6 August 2021

This week, over the period 28 July to 1 August 2021, based on adults in Great Britain:

• The proportion of adults reporting to wear face coverings when outside their home (92%) fell this week when compared with last week (95%), as did the percentage of adults who always or often maintain social distancing (53%) when compared with last week (61%).

• A high proportion of adults felt that compliance measures to slow the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) were either very important or important; such as wearing a face covering while shopping (91% this week, 89% last week) and socially distancing from others not in their household (87% this week, 88% last week).

• The proportion of adults that reported self-isolating in the last seven days fell to 4% (from 6% last week), which may be a result of the possible signs of a slowdown in infection rates in England, as mentioned in the Coronavirus Infection Survey UK: 30 July 2021.

• The main reason adults self-isolated in the last seven days continued to be because of being in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 (53% compared with 42% last week).

• The second most common reason for self-isolating in the last seven days was the new response option of being notified by the NHS app (26%).

• More than 6 in 10 (62%) adults said they met up indoors with someone not in their household in the past seven days, having increased from 55% last week and 20% in the week ending 6 May 2021 before indoor restrictions eased as part of step 3 of the roadmap in England.

• Adults meeting up outdoors with someone not in their household in the past seven days decreased slightly from 68% last week to 65%; this was at 20% in the week ending 7 March 2021 before outdoor activity restrictions eased as part of step 1 of the roadmap.

• Almost 3 in 10 adults (28% this week, 33% last week) reported they felt it will take more than a year for life to return to normal, with 17% reporting six months or less.

• Personal well-being measures remained fairly stable this week compared with last week, with similar levels for happiness (7.1 this week, 7.2 last week), anxiety (3.9 this week, 3.8 last week), while the feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (7.3) and life satisfaction (7.0) were unchanged from last week.

• Positive sentiment towards the COVID-19 vaccine remained high at 96% (same as last week), while 89% of adults said they were either very or fairly likely to have a vaccine booster jab for COVID-19 if offered to them.

• Those in older age groups were more likely to accept an offer for a booster jab, with 83% of those aged 16 to 29 years being very or fairly likely to accept a booster jab compared with 98% of those aged 70 years and over.

This release contains data and indicators from a module being undertaken through the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS’) Opinions and Lifestyle Survey (OPN) to understand the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on British society.

Breakdowns by age, sex, region and country, including confidence intervals for the estimates, are contained in the Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain dataset.

Where changes in results from previous weeks are presented in this bulletin, associated confidence intervals should be used to assess the statistical significance of the differences.

Positive vaccine sentiment

“Positive vaccine sentiment” refers to adults who:

• have received a vaccine
• have been offered a vaccine and are waiting to be vaccinated
• report being very or fairly likely to have a vaccine if offered

Our survey does not include adults living in care homes or other establishments so will not capture vaccinations in these settings. Because of small sample sizes, the percentage of adults who have declined the vaccine should be treated with caution.

Estimates of attitudes towards vaccination provided since 13 to 17 January 2021 should be used with caution when compared with any weeks prior to this. In the weeks prior to this, adults were asked their likelihood of having a vaccine if offered but were not specifically asked if they had already been offered or received a vaccine.

Sampling and weighting

This week, 28 July to 1 August 2021, we sampled 5,999 households. These were randomly selected from those that had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS) or Opinions and Lifestyle Survey. The responding sample contained 3,855 individuals, representing a 64% response rate.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population (based on July 2021 population estimates). Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information.