Nearly 80 percent of respondents in a survey released by the New Power Party (NPP) yesterday said that Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) should remain in charge of the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC).
The survey, which was partly designed to evaluate the approval ratings of politicians in the current administration, found that Chen, who is combating the spread of COVID-19, has an approval rating of 79.9 percent.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) have approval ratings of 75.7 percent and 74.9 percent respectively, the poll showed.
Photo: CNA
The results showed that the public regards the government’s performance highly, particularly concerning its effectiveness in containing the COVID-19 outbreak, the NPP said.
The results showed that, as most people want Chen to maintain his position on the front line, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) was unwise to propose that he be replaced with someone else, said Trend Survey and Research Co general manager Wu Shih-chang (吳世昌), who was in charge of administrating the survey.
In response, the TPP yesterday said that it would accept criticism with an open mind.
Of the respondents, 95.9 percent said that the economy has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and 71 percent of those think that the effect has been enormous.
On the issue of relief measures, 41.1 percent of respondents said that a tax deduction would be a big help, while 38.2 percent of respondents said that a cash rebate would help more.
The survey was conducted on Monday and Tuesday last week. It collected 1,085 valid samples and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The results were weighted based on gender, age and education, the NPP said.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin
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