(Incruit)Collective exhaustion with coronavirus restrictions is mounting in South Korea amid a prolonged fight against the pandemic, with nine in 10 Koreans saying they feel “tired.”

According to a poll of 837 adults from Jan. 6-7 by a job search engine Incruit, 94.1 percent of the respondents said their fatigue had accumulated due to the protracted pandemic.

The biggest reasons they felt fatigued about the pandemic was that they had to refrain from meeting their families and friends (12.2 percent) and they had to put face masks on (12.1 percent).

Men found it most difficult to resist the urge to have gatherings (12.5 percent) while women found it most unbearable to wear a mask (12.1 percent).

Some 9.4 percent of those surveyed pointed to suspicion of infection, followed by slowing economy (9.4 percent), social distancing (8.9 percent), the coronavirus situation dragging on (8.4 percent) and repetition of infection waves (7.5 percent).

Other reasons for the coronavirus-related fatigue included worsening financial situation (5.8 percent), the number of new daily cases not falling (5.5 percent), weight gain (4.8 percent), and emergence of a new strain of COVID-19 as well as waiting for the vaccines (4.1 percent).

By age, a major source of fatigue for those in their 20s and 30s was suspicion of infection while it was slowing economy for those in their 40s and 50s, according to the pollster.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)