Quebec non-francophones most likely to know someone with COVID-19: poll
Non-francophones are more worried about catching COVID-19 than francophones, possibly because they follow the news on the pandemic in other countries more closely, a survey suggests.
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Non-francophones in Quebec are the Canadians most likely to know someone personally who has contracted the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a survey for the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS).
Fifty-one per cent of Quebecers whose first language is either English or a non-official language say they know someone who has tested positive for the virus, according to the Léger poll of 1,516 Canadians, conducted by online interviews from Oct. 29-31.
That’s almost twice as high as the Canadian average of 27 per cent.
And it’s much higher than the rate among Quebec francophones (33 per cent).
With all languages combined, 37 per cent of Quebecers know someone who has had the virus.
In the rest of Canada, the proportion of people who know someone who has had the virus is significantly lower, ranging from 29 per cent in Alberta to 16 per cent in the Atlantic provinces.
ACS president Jack Jedwab said the results reflect the prevalence of COVID-19 in different regions of Canada. Quebec has been the COVID-19 hot spot since the start of the pandemic, he noted.
Quebec, with 24 per cent of Canada’s population, has had 114,820 cases of the virus to date, or 44 per cent of the 260,055 total cases across the country.
As to why non-francophones in Quebec are most likely to know someone who has had the virus, Jedwab said most of them live in Montreal, the region most affected, with 44,431 cases to date as of Saturday.
Among Quebecers who know someone who has had the virus, 42 per cent said the person was a friend, 31 per cent said a family member and 17 per cent said a co-worker.
Among non-francophones, 70 per cent say they are afraid of getting the virus, versus 46 per cent of francophones.
In Greater Montreal, 56 per cent of residents are fearful of catching COVID-19, compared with just 40 per cent in the rest of Quebec.
Another reason for the higher level of fear: The survey showed 67 per cent of francophones in Canada closely follow the COVID-19 situation outside of Canada, compared with 74 per cent of anglophones and 78 per cent of allophones.
Of Canadians who closely follow the evolution of the virus in other countries, 75 per cent are afraid of catching it. Among those who follow it somewhat closely, 61 per cent are afraid. Of Canadians who do not follow it very closely, 48 per cent are afraid. Among those who do not follow it at all, only 35 per cent are afraid.
No margin of error can be associated with an online poll, but a similar telephone survey would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.52 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
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