Coronavirus and the social impacts on Great Britain: 7 May 2021

This week, over the period 28 April to 3 May 2021, based on adults in Great Britain:

• Compliance with most measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) remained high, with 87% of adults reporting handwashing when returning home (same as last week) and 98% using a face covering (97% last week); however, the proportion of adults avoiding physical contact when outside their home has fallen to 82%, which is the lowest it has been since between 9 and 13 September 2020 (81%).

• Just over 1 in 5 (21%) adults reported staying home or only left for work, exercise, essential shopping or medical needs in the past seven days as restrictions ease; a continued fall since January 2021 (65% between 13 and 17 January).

• More people were leaving home in the last seven days to use services that were previously closed during lockdown; for example, among adults who left home, 17% visited a hair salon or barber (compared with less than 1% in the week ending 10 January 2021 when businesses began to close); 28% shopped for things other than basic necessities (compared with 6% in January) and 10% took children to and from activities (compared with 1% in January).

• Over half (56%) of adults met up with someone outdoors not in their household, childcare or support bubble in the last seven days; similar to last week (57%) and a notable increase from the 19% reported between 10 and 14 March 2021, while adults meeting up indoors has remained relatively stable over time (10% this week and 13% between 10 and 14 March).

• 6 in 10 (60%) adults reported leaving home for work in the past seven days; a continued increase from last week (58%) and since mid-February 2021 (44% in the period 10 to 14 February) and returning to similar proportions as October 2020 (60% between 14 and 18 October).

• Personal well-being levels are generally yet to recover to pre-pandemic (February 2020) levels and were relatively stable this week; happiness fell slightly (7.0 this week, 7.1 last week and 7.2 in February), anxiety increased slightly (3.9 this week, 3.8 last week and 3.5 in February), life satisfaction remained the same (7.0 this week and last week, 7.3 in February) and feelings that the things done in life are worthwhile improved slightly (7.4 this week, 7.3 last week and 7.6 in February).

• Positive sentiment towards the COVID-19 vaccine remained high; 93% of adults reported they had now either received a vaccine or would be likely to have a vaccine if offered; a similar proportion to last week (94%).

• Over 6 in 10 (65%) adults reported to have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which includes nearly 3 in 10 (28%) adults reporting to have received their second dose.

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 the vaccine

• have been offered the vaccine and waiting to be vaccinated

• report being very or fairly likely to have the 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

In the week 28 April to 3 May 2021 a sample of 6,029 households was randomly selected from those that had previously completed the Labour Market Survey (LMS). Fieldwork for this period was extended by one day because of the early May Bank Holiday weekend.

The responding sample contained 3,826 individuals, representing a 63% response rate.

Survey weights were applied to make estimates representative of the population (based on May 2021 population estimates).

Further information on the survey design and quality can be found in the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey Quality and Methodology Information.