A survey recently conducted by the Program on Governance and Local Development (GLD) and the Institute for Public Opinion and Research (Ipor) shows that 81% of Malawians are not very worried about becoming infected with Covid-19.

The survey also outlines that the majority fear a negative perception if they are found to be coronavirus positive, but for the most part, Malawians remain unafraid of the pandemic. Part of the survey reads, “The percentage varies across districts, with the highest amount of concern in Chitipa and Karonga, on the Tanzania border, but most are not very worried.”

True enough, a press conference by the Association of Parents for University of Malawi (Unima) has called on the government to consider partial re-opening of schools to allow students in their final years to complete their studies. Prior to the parents’ call, informal traders in Mzuzu took to the streets in Malawi, protesting against the call for a lockdown, marching through the city council’s offices protesting against the shutdown with placards reading “Lockdown more poisonous than corona” and “We’d rather die of corona than of hunger”.