The willingness to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in Slovakia has increased to 41.8 percent, the highest since April of last year and up 2 percent as compared to February, according to a 'How Are You, Slovakia?' survey carried out by the MNFORCE agency, the Seesame communication agency, the Slovak Academy of Science's (SAV) Institutes of Sociology, and that of Research on Social Communication. "The growing popularity of vaccination against novel coronavirus in Slovakia can be explained by the gradual onset of mass vaccination and the knowledge of the relative safety and efficacy of the vaccines used. Another important factor is the ongoing unfavourable epidemiological situation and the related fears of the disease," said Robert Klobucký of SAV's Institute of Sociology. The proportion of respondents who would refuse vaccination has been steadily declining since December, and currently stands at 28.8 percent.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the most popular among the respondents who plan to be vaccinated (70.8 percent), followed by Moderna (55.5 percent), Sputnik V (55 percent) and AstraZeneca (31.1 percent). Two thirds of the people polled think that the Russian Sputnik V vaccine should be used in Slovakia only after approval by European or Slovak authorities. Nearly 31 percent of those respondents who don't want to be vaccinated, would be willing to receive vaccination if the Sputnik V were available. The survey was carried out in late March on a sample of 1,000 respondents.
