Nearly 30% of Canadians say it's time to 'learn to live' with COVID-19: Poll

A new poll suggests almost 30 per cent of Canadians believe it's time to lift pandemic restrictions and "learn to live" with the COVID-19 virus, while more than 40 per cent want measures to ease carefully.

A new poll suggests almost 30 per cent of Canadians believe it's time to lift pandemic restrictions and "learn to live" with the COVID-19 virus, while more than 40 per cent want measures to ease carefully.

Forty-three per cent of Canadians surveyed by Leger identified their feelings about the current state of the pandemic as "prudent" -- the most popular answer of four options -- saying they did not want to lift restrictions too quickly.

But 29 per cent said they were ready to move on, selecting the answer that said they were "adequately vaccinated" and viewed the Omicron variant as "less serious."

The other 28 per cent of replies were evenly split among those who said they were anxious and those who were angry.

Fourteen per cent didn't feel comfortable at all lifting safety measures, noting the virus was still scary for them, while the other 14 said they have been opposed to mandates and measures "for a while" and wanted governments to "give us back our freedom."

The online survey of 1,546 adult Canadians was conducted Feb. 4 to Feb. 6; it cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.