PEOPLE in Wales are less likely to wear a face mask in a public place than those in England and Scotland.

And a far greater proportion of people in Wales and Scotland believe the coronavirus situation is improving in their respective countries than people in England believe about the situation across the UK as a whole.

The figures arise from a series of You Gov polls looking at how people in England, Scotland and Wales are reacting to coronavirus.

Out of a little more than 1,000 people in Wales who were asked between July 29 and August 7 whether they had worn a face mask in the previous two weeks, 43 per cent said yes.

But in England - based on 1,392 people polled on August 6-7 - 65 per cent said they had, and in Scotland 79 per cent said yes, the latter based on 1,134 people polled during July 28-30.

Personal behaviour between people in the three nations is otherwise largely the same, with the only exception being that people in Wales are more likely to be actively avoiding contact with tourists (41 per cent, compared to 30 per cent in England and 33 per cent in Scotland).

One reason for the difference with regard to the wearing of face masks in public places is the impact of government rules in the different nations.

Face coverings are not mandatory in shops in Wales, the only UK nation yet to introduce such a stipulation, while the mandatory wearing of face coverings on public transport was introduced later in Wales.

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People in England are less likely to support quarantining people and places, with 65 per cent supporting quarantine for someone who has come into contact with a contaminated patient. In Scotland and Wales, 75-76 per cent of those polled supported the measure.

Similarly, support in England for quarantining any location a contaminated patient has been to was 30 per cent. In Scotland it was 39 per cent and in Wales 43 per cent.

People in England are also less likely to support quarantining people on flights to Britain (48 per cent), compared to 55 per cent of Scots who would quarantine people on flights to Scotland, and 60 per cent of people in Wales who would quarantine people on flights to Wales.

Regarding how the fight against coronavirus is going, almost two thirds (64 per cent) of people in Wales said the situation in Wales is getting better or completely over, compared to 16 per cent who thought it was getting worse.

Eighty per cent of Scots believed the situation was getting better or completely over, with eight per cent thinking it was getting worse, though the poll was completed there before the outbreak in Aberdeen.

In England however, the results are dramatically different. It must be stressed that the question asked in England related to the UK as a whole, though there is no reason to suppose the results would have been very different had it referred only to England.

Just 38 per cent of those polled in England thought the coronavirus situation is getting better or completely over, and 45 thought it was getting worse.