The Effect of Publicly Available COVID-19 Information on the Functioning of Society, Businesses, Government and Local Institutions: A Case Study from Poland

The COVID-19 pandemic has seriously affected many world regions’ societies and economies. The pandemic and the restrictions introduced in response to it have impacted social behaviour and the operation of businesses in various ways. The present study aimed to verify the impact of information on the COVID-19 outbreak in Poland on the frequency with which residents of Rybnik and the surrounding areas chose to stay in their houses or apartments, as well as the functioning of businesses. The originality of the study lies in the use of mediation modelling, in which the following were used as variables describing the epidemic in Poland: new cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Poland; the number of deaths caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection in Poland; and the number of people quarantined due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Poland. On the other hand, data on tap water consumption were used as variables describing the frequency with which residents of Rybnik and the surrounding areas chose to stay in their houses or apartments, the operation of businesses in and around the city, and the operation of government and local government institutions. The study’s conclusions confirm that publicly available information about the COVID-19 outbreak in Poland affected the frequency of residents of Rybnik and the surrounding areas staying in their houses or apartments as well as the functioning of businesses in Rybnik and the surrounding areas. The increasing number of people who died due to SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with the limited functioning of government and local government institutions in and around Rybnik, which contributed to restrictions on the functioning of service industry companies in the city and surrounding areas.